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Yesterday I outlined why Google+ matters regardless of user engagement thanks to Google Search Plus Your World.  Today I want to look at how Search Plus Your World is impacting local search currently and why we probably won’t see much of an impact on localized search in the short term.

Earlier this month Greg Sterling did a post on Search Engine Land that talked about the limited impact of Google Search Plus Your World on Local.  As I mentioned in my comment on Greg’s post I think in the short term we will see little impact on local results, especially when it comes to some of the more obscure searches he ran like “Toyota Dealer” or “Window Replacement, Walnut Creek”.  I feel part of this is due to the fact that most of us probably don’t have a tight knit social network made up of users within close proximity to us, as Andrew Shotland pointed out yesterday in his post “Google Plus Connections Are the New Link“, but also because people simply aren’t engaging content around these topics.

The impact Google Search Plus Your World has on local search in it’s current state is fragmented and useless at best.  I ran a search for “Chinese Restaurants” on Google this evening and in the results I received a share frome a friend via Yelp for a Chinese restaurant nearly 45 minutes from my house.  Not exactly close enough for take out…  I ran another search for “night clubs” and received personalized results for for the top ten Los Angeles night clubs, the other was for dress codes in New York night clubs.  Not exactly relevant to where I am in Corona, CA nearly fifty miles away from the heart of Los Angeles and on the opposite side of the map from New York.

In order for Google Search Plus Your World to become relevant in the local search space, Google has to capitalize on what they did well with local in the beginning and focus on location, location, location.

Google Places+

In my predictions for local search in 2012 post, myself, Andrew Shotland, and Mike Blumenthal all agreed that 2012 will be the year that Google+ and Google Places would become integrated and I feel in order for Google Search Plus Your World to become relevant in local search, this has to happen sooner than later.  By integrating Google Places into Google Plus Business Pages, Google can ensure that the right local data is associated with a Page, making it more relevant to local searchers.  By having this information connected it would allow for local pages to have more clout than other pages in my circles.  Additionally, the most locally relevant businesses could appear in the Search Plus Your World page recommendations.

Friends In Local Places

Google+ profiles allow Google to know where a user lives.  It would only make sense for them to provide content from friends in the city I am searching from more prominent than someone out of the area unless the content directly relates to a local business or service.  If I’m doing a search for Chinese food in Corona, CA chances are users from that area are going to be the experts and ultimately have more relevant input that someone in Los Angeles, CA.

“We all turn to people we know and trust for great recommendations…”  

Straight from the horses mouth, Google says the focus of search plus your world is to turn to people you know for great recommendations.  Google put a significant focus on Google reviews on Places pages last year, I would imagine that along with integrating Places and Pages Google will likely showcase reviews of local businesses somewhere in localized search results from people within your circles.  Perhaps something similar to the share on Google+ from Todd Mintz below, but with the actual review instead of the Google+ post about it. On a side note, Beaverton is in a totally different state…way to go Google!

Just Checking In

Another prominent feature Google could utilize is the check-in feature.  If individuals in a circle are checked in to a local business during the time of a related search, it could show up in the search results telling you that someone you know is currently at a location in your area.  Sure, it’s extra creepy/stalker like, but it’s also extremely relevant and engaging not only for Google, but for local businesses.  Knowing that someone you know is currently at a location may be enough to make you join them, or simply follow in their lead.

Ultimately nobody knows the next move but Google, but I can almost guarantee that Google is working on some strategy to strengthen Search Plus Your World in the local search space.  Local is the one area that Google still has a lot of pull with small businesses.  By making Search Plus Your World more useful to local businesses, they can help capitalize on the invovlement from local businesses and ultimately their customers.  Will it create more Google+ users or greater Google+ engagement?  Probably not, but as I outlined in yesterday’s post, perhaps it doesn’t matter.

Last week there were a lot of talks about Google+ and the questionability of actual engagement from it’s users.  Many questioned the 60-80% engagement numbers and wondered what specifically defined engagement.  As with anything Google related, the internet marketing world was in a tizzy about the announcement and the lack of clout behind the number, especially after discovering that engagement simply meant logging in and using a Google product.  I thought about this a bit and after experimening with Google Search Plus Your World a bit more, I realized that even if they aren’t engaging it doesn’t matter.

When I first signed up for Google+ the first thing I did was figure out my circles.  After all, what good is a social network without friends?  After that it was just a matter of posting, experimenting and familiarizing myself with all the features.  It is my guess that this is the path most novice Google+ users take when first starting out.  And it is because of this process that I believe Google+ is still having an impact.

Enter Google Search Plus Your World

Google Search Plus Your World relies on one element to function.  Your circles/friends.  As long as you have cirlces setup in Google+ you have the opportunity to see personalized results via Search Plus Your World.  Search Plus Your World injects photos, content, people, and related people and pages into your search results via your connections on Google+.  Even if you never use Google+ after your initial setup there is still a chance of seeing this content from people you are connected to that are using Google+.

What This Means For Google

Love or hate Google+, Google is doing a stellar job at making sure people know Google+ is there and making sure you will eventually have to use it.  First they are now  making Google+ the   By introducing Search Plus Your World, Google has basically guaranteed that users will engage Google+ content at some point or another.  Even if you never use Google+ there is a chance you will receive recommendations from your friends that are using Google+ and ultimately may clickthrough and engage via Google+ or at least view Google+ content.  In addition to hooking existing users that may not being using the social network, Google now requires a Google+ profile as part of signup, ensuring that all new users are injected into the Google+ ecosystem.

What This Means For Internet Marketers and Businesses

My wife is one of the probably thousands of users that signed up for a Google+ account early on only to abandon it a few days later.  Though she never uses the service she is an avid GMail, Google Reader, and Google search user.  As I look at some of her searches I see that even though she no longer uses Google+ her search results continue to be influenced by the users she initially added to circles.

Even if your audience isn’t active, it doesn’t mean they can’t be influenced.  Establishing a presence and making sure that you make it into that intial batch of circles could be crucial in your ability to influence the search results of your audience in the future.  Even moreso, creating content that may be shared by an inactive users inner circles could also create opportunities for you and your business.

Happy Halloween! Hope you all have a spooktacular day!

This year I had a little fun and recreated my Google+ profile as a costume.  If you read the updates you’ll see that something strange is going on in the neighborhood…Hope you like it!

There’s no denying that integrating a mobile into your marketing strategy in this day in age is crucial.  Be it through mobile SEO, location based marketing, or apps mobile is huge and it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.  However, the obsession over creating a mobile app for your business is getting out of hand.  As such the number of marketers and developers selling products or services to get businesses to create a mobile app are equally out of hand.  But when it comes to the mobile craze, there are a handful of things businesses are overlooking.

Your App Doesn’t Fulfill a Need

In a study published earlier this year by Localytics it was discovered that 1 in 4 mobile apps once downloaded were never used again.  There may be a number of reasons for this, usability, functionality, people who are just trying an app, but I would hypothesize that a larger culprit is the fact that the app probably didn’t fulfill a serious need for the user.

When clients talk to me about mobile apps the first thing I ask them is, “What will your app do  to make your customer’s life easier or offer that you don’t already provide elsewhere.” In most cases they can’t come up with a single legitimate response.  The reason for this is that most businesses want to deliver the same sort of content and user experience found on their website in app form.  What they fail to realize is that if users can get the information off their site, or a mobile optimized version of their site there is no reason to even bother with an app.  You are not offering anything unique to get them to download and use the app over traditional means. The only exception to this would be if the app made a task on a mobile device easier.  For instance I have the Haunters Digest app installed on my phone because it gives me access to all of their content and allows me to stream their podcasts directly from the app as opposed to having to use a separate app to play their content.  In this case they aren’t really giving me anything I can’t get elsewhere, but they are making a task on my mobile device easier.

Your Company Doesn’t Generate A lot of Repeat Business

The desire for a mobile app has come up a lot in my work with Plastic Surgery Studios because the idea of a doctor having their own app strokes the ego a bit, but what I have pointed out time and again is that plastic surgery patients don’t typically generate a lot of repeat business.  You come in for a consult, you get a procedure done, and you’re probably set for life at that point.  If you’re a company that doesn’t generate a lot of repeat business then there aren’t a lot of users who may use your app during the life of your business relationship and then never use it again.

You Don’t Have the Budget or Means to Continue to Grow

Mobile apps are demanding.  Both the iPhone OS and Android OS continue to evolve and with it comes new phones and new updates that need to be taken into consideration when developing a mobile app.  If you or the company developing your application can’t keep up with the changes then ultimately your app is useless.  Unlike a website, which can often site stagnant for months on end, mobile apps are having to be tweaked and updated constantly and if your business can’t keep up then a mobile app probably isn’t for you.

It’s important to realize that just because the world is becoming more mobile, not everything has to be handled through mobile apps.  Smart phone and tablet users are still navigating the internet through browsers and search engines, meaning you can still deliver your message to mobile users with a website that is properly optimized for mobile devices. As Chuck Martin outlined in a recent article on Inc.com, an app needs to either make life easier, make life cheaper, or make life fun in order to appeal to users and be successful.

As with anything shiny and new the introduction of Facebook Timeline and a slew of other new features has businesses and marketers rushing to find out how they can use it for their business. I have already seen a number of small businesses sign up for a developer account just so they could create a branded Timeline on their personal account, but I’m left to wonder why.  I have spent years battling with clients and local businesses to convert from a Facebook profile to a Facebook Page to create a better user experience and greater engagement opportunities for their business and even with a shiny new Timeline, my advice hasn’t changed.

Facebook has said for years that they want users to have a seamless experience on Facebook focused on a fluid user interface, and while some may say the numerous changes they have made over the years have made things hard, they have still had that in mind.  Yesterday Mashable posted an article that looked at what advertising pros might do with a Facebook Timeline if it were applied to a Facebook Page and in return received some really well designed and branded Facebook Timeline’s for brands like McDonalds, the New York Yankees, Coca-Cola and a number of other brands.

In the article, a Facebook rep suggested that Facebook was looking at the evolution of Facebook Pages in addition to the recent changes to user profiles.  “Consistency in both functionality and appearance is really important to Facebook, so we hope to make Pages more consistent with the new Timeline in the future,” he said.

As I pointed out in an article I wrote for Plastic Surgery Studios about early adoption of Google+, good things come to those who wait.  We saw what happened to businesses who adopted Google+ too rapidly, their pages were taken down and they were placed on a waiting list to try out the, still yet to be publicly released, business pages.  If you already use your Facebook profile as a business account, then first I’d highly recommend you convert to a Page, but if not by all means have at it.  Otherwise, don’t send your Facebook social media efforts back in time by engaging your fans via a profile.  Remember profiles require you to accept friend request, you don’t get Likes and your content can’t be easily shared.  All that extra effort definitely isn’t worth the shiny new Timeline feature for your business.