Google Introduces the +1 Button – What It Means to Your Business

We’re in a new time for marketing. In case you hadn’t noticed, it doesn’t matter how much you have to spend on advertising anymore. It doesn’t work the way it used to.  The only thing that really matters (over the long-term) is what your customers think about you. They are your advertising, and they can help or hinder your sales.

That Facebook “like” button has become more than relevant. It’s important, not only to users of Facebook, but to search engines which are now factoring “likes” and “retweets” into their algorithms.

Bing landed a partnership with Facebook, which uses Bing for its on-site search function, so the upstart company can incorporate Facebook activity into its search results. A search for a local restaurant, for example, would reveal not only information about the restaurant, but also recommendations from friends based on their Facebook profiles.

Not to be outdone, Google is answering with the “+1 button,” which is akin to a Facebook “like.” The button will be on search results as well as individual web pages, which allows users to make recommendations across the web. To build a social network around the search results, Google is requiring users to create a profile before taking part in the fun.

Similar in some ways to Facebook’s “Like” button, the Google +1 enables visitors to your web site to see who recommends you or your products. According to them, “The +1 button is shorthand for ‘this is pretty cool’ or ‘you should check this out.’

Click +1 to publicly give something your stamp of approval. Your +1’s can help friends, contacts, and others on the web find the best stuff when they search.”

See +1’s

Sometimes it’s easier to find exactly what you’re looking for when someone you know already found it. Get recommendations for the things that interest you, right when you want them, in your search results.

The next time you’re trying to remember that bed and breakfast your buddy was raving about, or find a great charity to support, a +1 could help you out. Just make sure you’re signed in to your Google Account.

Show +1’s

In order to +1 things, you first need a public Google profile. This helps people see who recommended that tasty recipe or great campsite. When you create a profile, it’s visible to anyone and connections with your email address can easily find it.

Your +1’s are stored in a new tab on your Google profile. You can show your +1’s tab to the world, or keep it private and just use it to personally manage the ever-expanding record of things you love around the web.

So whether we like it or not,  facilitating transparent conversations with your customers on review sites and social networks is becoming essential. How is your company doing in this new arena?

Get started with the +1 here.

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