Tag Archives: Google

Google+ Business Pages for Telecom Sales Agents

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How Telecom Agents can use Google Plus

As telecom sales agents, you understand the importance of an effective Internet presence. There are many different avenues a business can take when looking to expand their Internet presence, each offering a unique set of characteristics. With the launch of Google Plus in the summer of 2011, and the Business page platform in November, Google entered the social media market hoping to attract businesses to their site. 

A Google Plus business page for your telecom business has many unique features that can be beneficial if you are looking to extend your social media reach.

  • Search Engine Optimization - Using calculations derived from all +1 button clicks, Google will use this sum to help determine relevancy in Google search results.  The overall number of +1 clicks will help to raise your profile during a Google search. Google search statistics show that most users tend to click on results with relevancy that place them near the top of the list.  Users don’t tend to scroll through and open links several pages into the result list.  Using SEO strategies, such as +1 clicks, will help to boost your search relevancy.
  • Circles - Business page users can opt to group followers into specific categories or defined audiences.  This allows users to create marketing to reach a specific audience and more precisely match the message to potential customers.  
  • Multiple classifications for businesses - Businesses can choose to be classified as a local business or places; arts, entertainment, or sports; company, institution, or organization; product or brand, or other. These categories allow users to search by business categories and allows business page users to clearly communicate the type of business they are promoting. 
  • Hangouts – You can "hang out" with followers through an embedded video chat.  This could be a valuable resource for customer service and real time communication.  Businesses could invite followers to a web chat on Google+ that further clarifies a product’s marketing or the business message.
  • Enhanced features for local pages - With the aid of Google Maps, creating and maintaining a local page allows businesses to further enhance their Internet visibility.  Local pages, managed separately from Business pages, include a map that clearly highlights the business’ contact information, hours, and other relevant details.  The difference between the two pages is that a local page helps customers connect directly with a local business and the business page provides the same business owners with an avenue for promoting customer engagement, interaction, and building loyalty.  If the majority of your telecom customers are local, this may be a very valuable option for you.

Ready to get started? Here’s a great video tutorial on how to set up your Google+ business page.

   

Hanging Out with Google +1: Huge for the Telecom Industry

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My nephew asked me recently, “What is Google”? It’s really quite difficult to summarize in a sentence, isn’t it? Some say it’s a search engine company. Others say it’s an Internet application company. Lately it’s become a software company and it briefly ventured into the hardware company arena (i.e. Nexus 1). Finally it has moved full steam ahead into a hardware company with its purchase of Motorola Mobility.

Taking a step back and looking at what they really do, Google has transformed itself into, at the end of the day, a telecommunications company. Webster’s defines telecommunications as: “communication at a distance”. Wikipedia defines telcommunications as “The transmission of information over significant distances to communicate.”

Almost all of Google’s services fit these descriptions, although perhaps not in the traditional sense. Google makes it ridiculously easy for people asking questions to get “the best” answers via their search engine and sponsored ads platform. Their Android platform allows users to communicate with others via cell-phone and tablet. Their Google Docs applications allow users to communicate with co-workers and customers at no cost. Their gMail application allows users to…well you get the idea.

Google has even begun building experimental, ultra high-speed broadband networks. Oh my! http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/

Enter Google +1. Google +1 offers the same simple and free communications benefits that all their other applications offer. Google +1 allows users to communicate more effectively with the world. Specifically, it allows users to target audiences what they want to talk to, and allows users to filter out those users that it doesn’t want to hear. The coolest feature of Google +1, Hangouts, is the feature that is certainly striking fear into the hearts of both Skype (now Microsoft) and Facebook: Hangouts.

Hangouts allow video conferencing with multiple users simultaneously. Skype charges a premium for this capability (although probably not for long now). Facebook video chat only allows 1 on 1 chats. It is interesting that this news hasn’t caused more shockwaves throughout the telecom community. Like everything Google, it is so easy to use and so easy to share with your friends and business associates alike. It’s even easier to use than Skype, which this author didn’t know was even possible.

With Google +1, you can easily start video conferencing with 9 of your friends/coworkers/employees in a matter of seconds – no phone numbers or user names to remember. It’s only a matter of time before Google introduces a free screen sharing application of the GoToMeeting.com variety. When this service arises for free, Google will stand an entire telecom market on its head, once again.

Simplicity, creativity, elegance, and free-service: these seem to be the Google way. As long as Google keeps printing money with its sponsored ads, patents, and other paid-for technologies, there is really no end in site for how Google’s free services will simultaneously disrupt and add massive value to the telecommunications industry.