Today is our free webinar on GooglePlus for your business. If you’re not able to join us, follow and join in the conversation. Ask questions and tell us what you think. Use hashtag #GPlusSLI in your post. See you there!

I started seeing the buzz about Google Drive this morning and immediately ignored it because I thought it related to Google’s driverless car. Which I must admit is pretty cool, but since I’m not in the market for a new car, and Google isn’t in the market of actually selling George Jetson-esqe cars, I didn’t pay much attention.

But then one of my favorite All Things D tech writers, Liz Gannes, posted an article on Google+: Meet Google Drive: Specs and Screen Shots, and I immediately thought – I don’t want this, I NEED this.

Three months ago I dropped my external hard drive on a tile floor, resulting in a string of obscenities, followed by uncontrollable sobbing, then the very sad realization that 5 years of photos were not worth the $1,500 that manufacturer so kindly offered to take from me to “possibly” recover my data. I also realized that a backup hard drive is not actually a “backup” hard drive if it’s the only place where your data is stored.

So all it took was for me to read these words “5 gigabytes of free storage” and I was immediately clicking the big blue “Download Google Drive for PC” button. Then I started reading more about what it was all about. Here are some highlights:

• Each Google Drive includes 5 gigabytes of free storage, you can pay for up to 16 terabytes.
• Google Drive creates a folder on your Mac, PC or Android phone, you put your files in the folder, it automatically syncs.
• Share your files from any device.
• Search document files by keyword  and search scanned text on images, or even find images based on descriptions.

Cons? It’s Google, it’s free – yes there are cons.

• If you’re using Google Docs, Google Drive will replace your Docs tab, and move things around.
• Although Google’s terms state that you retain ownership of your content, it also states that:

When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content.

That’s a pretty big con.

I know there are plenty of other cloud storage services out there (Dropbox, iCloud, SkyDrive to name a few). But the integration with Google Docs appeals to me, as does the idea of not having to signup with yet another service.  At least I’ll know the few photos I have remaining that weren’t on my paperweight/defunct external hard drive will now be backed up. I’ll just have to cross my fingers that Google doesn’t have tile floors in its server farms.

Learn more at Google Drive.

But Why Should I Be on Google+ now?

There are lots of smart people there, and it’s growing. Google+ now has 90 million users, and is adding 625,000 new users a day*. While this number is dwarfed in comparison to Facebook’s 750 million users, it’s quickly catching up to the number of Twitter’s active users. Who were the first people to start using Google+? The early adopters – bloggers who recognized Google+ as uncharted territory where they didn’t have to be confined by the 140 character limit of Twitter. Now these intelligent people are waiting to “hang out” with you.

They’re making it personal. With the roll out of the new Google Search Plus Your World, when you’re signed into your Google+ account, and you Google search a keyword, in addition to your regular search results, you’ll see results from “your world” including web pages shared with you by your friends, Google+ posts from people you know (in your circles), and content  that’s only visible to you (like private photos from Google+). So for example, if someone searches for “best blue widget manufacturer in San Diego”, and you are said blue widget manufacturer, you’ll show up at in their search results if someone in their Google+ circles has interacted with your brand on Google+.

Your competition is there. The “best red widget manufacturer in San Diego” (a.k.a. your competition) may already be on Google+ since 61% of the top 100 brands are (Source: SocialTimes.com) And better yet, if they’re not…you’ll beat them there. The benefit of building valuable connections outweighs the virtually no risk of participation.

It’s Google. Google remains the undisputed champ in search engines. And Google products like Gmail, Google Places, Google News, Google Images, and YouTube are at the top of their respective heaps too. They’ll be integrated as part of Search plus Your World to improve the search experience. So a user can watch a video on you YouTube channel, see if their friends watched it, find new videos on Google+, and email it to some other friends. At this point, Search Plus Your World doesn’t cover content on any other social network with a more limited audience, including Facebook, Twitter, or Flickr.  More information about the convergence of Personal, Private, & Public Search Results with Google+ is available on SearchEngineLand.com.

To help you get started with Search Plus Your World, SiteLab created a 3-month plan for you to be fully integrated in 90 days.

Be the first in your industry to lead the way. Join us for a FREE live SiteLab webinar Tuesday, May 1, 2012: Google+ for Business

Source: *https://plus.google.com/117388252776312694644/posts/ZcPA5ztMZaj#117388252776312694644/posts/ZcPA5ztMZaj

So where do you start if you don’t have a mobile presence? Start by thinking AS your consumer. Often as marketers or branders we forget to do just that. You’re on your mobile device, how would you first go about looking up your brand on the go. What would you be looking for? Odds are you would look up the brand name or product info in a search engine. You might be taken to a competing website or you might be taken to your website depending on the search optimization of your site, which yes, matters for mobile as much as it does for desktop web.

Next, you’re on your site, can you easily view on the tiny screen what you’re looking for? Are your store hours readily available? Can you find where your product is nearby? Can a consumer easily find how to get to your location? Can you easily find the basic stats on your product?

If you were unable to do these things, you can see why a customer may be frustrated with your brand’s mobile experience. It’s time for you to invest in a mobile-friendly website, even if it’s just a page to relay basic information before launching your full website for more information. And if you’re running any in store campaigns or coupons, there should be a mobile experience for that as well.

It’s important to have a basic mobile strategy, because it is no longer an option. If you look at the analytics for your website, you can see just how many missed mobile opportunities you could be losing. Mobile should be a part of your overall brand strategy. In this real world example 25% of the visitors to this website are on mobile devices which equals 50,000 visitors per month. Imagine frustrating the entire population of the Caymen Islands with your mobile experience.

Other ways you could be frustrating your consumer:

• Having flash elements on your site that are not compatible with mobile devices and tablets. This includes videos that are not compatible with mobile devices
• Excessive PDFs or large files, if it takes more than 5 Mississippi’s before your file downloads, your consumer could have already given up
• Your advertising takes the consumer to a non-mobile friendly experience. Even if you’re trying to promote your Facebook or Twitter feeds, it should be integrated as much as possible with mobile versions of these applications.

We know, you’re already juggling your website presence, your social marketing and your online advertising, and mobile is a whole other thing to think about, but at this point, it’s too important not to.

For those of you who waited until the last minute, here’s your punch list to get it done before the March 30th deadline:

Cover Photo
This is the main photo across the top of the page.

• Specs: 851 px W x 315 px H (If you use a larger photo Facebook will give you the option to reposition the cover by drag and drop.)
• For content, think about your business and your industry.
• Look at other business pages in your industry for inspiration – it can be a collage of your products or customers, people using your products or services, or include some design element from your website or business collateral.
• For non-profit business pages, consider including pictures of the people you’ve helped and encourage page owners to make a difference in these people’s lives too.
• Important: According to Facebook’s Timeline Guidelines for choosing a cover photo, your cover photo may not contain price or purchase information (e.g. 40% off), contact information including your website URL, references to user actions such as “like”, or calls to action like “Get it now!”.
• You can no longer have a default landing tab, so use your cover photo and three main apps wisely.
• Phase 2: Consider including a “in season now” element that you can rotate seasonally. This is especially a good strategy for businesses in the culinary, food retail, or fresh produce industries. (Tip: Design all 4 seasonal iterations at once to save time and money on maintenance.)

Profile Photo
This is the square photo inset in the left hand bottom corner of the cover photo.

• Most likely, this is where your logo will go.

• Consider what you will use for the profile photo when you are determining what your cover photo will be as you can do some really cool things if they work together.

• Important: You’ll want to use an instantly-recognizable image (hence why the logo is top choice) because it will be used throughout Facebook wherever your posts go and whenever you comment as your Page

Timeline
This is the virtual history of your company or organization filled with the “milestones” you add to it like business started, first profit, 10 years in business, etc.

• Repurpose any offline “timelines” you may have created in the past for business collateral
• In addition to the regular milestones like when you’re businesses was started, include awards you received, favorite customer moments, and when individual products were introduced and retired
• Whenever possible, include pictures that are associated with each milestone. These can always be added later.
• Phase 2: If your company has been around for a really long time, eventually scan those vintage photos in like you see with Coca-Cola (click on “Founded” in Timeline on the right).

Apps
These are the 4 boxes below your cover photo that used to be “tabs” on the old layout.

• The first app is always “Photos” and can not be moved or changed.
• You can change and move the other 3 to be displayed along with “Photos”. Any more than 3 can be found in a dropdown.
• The other 3 can be more time-sensitive like promotions or features.
• Important: Look at Facebook Insights for your page to see which apps your fans use most now.
• You may also want to swap the positions of your apps periodically to see if the position makes a difference in usage.
• Phase 2: You can also change the cover photo of each app and may want to update these to look a little more fluid with your overall design after you’ve converted.

…now that you’ve got your Timeline in place, here are some other items to consider.

Featuring Posts – “Star” vs. “Pin”
Get more mileage out of your content with new “star” and “pin” features.

• “Starring” posts (i.e. making them “sticky”) makes them “double-wide” (love this term from Mari Smith) or twice as wide in the timeline so carefully consider when to use.
• Use the “star” feature sparingly…People Magazine uses it to feature top stories and Coca-Cola mainly uses the star feature for promotions or events. Both brands use it about every 2 weeks.
• You can also “pin” content to the top of the Page. These “pinned” profiles will remain at the top of your Page for 7 days.
• Most content gets the most likes and comments within the first 12 hours or so of you posting it. Extend your content’s life by pinning the most popular content to the top of the page.
• Tip: Determine a strategy for “starring” and “pinning” your content so that everyone working on your page from the content creator to the community manager knows what types of content to feature.

What to do with current tabs?
Those custom applications that used to be accessible through tabs aren’t going anywhere… they’ve just changed.

• Facebook used to restrict you to 520 px width for your custom tabs. Now you have 810 px.
• When your Facebook layout transitions to the Timeline, your apps (were tabs) will remain intact, but the 520px wide content will appear as floating within the new 810px wide content area.
• Phase 2: Since you can’t have a default landing page, we recommend you take down your welcome page unless you think it offers something valuable for fans to check out on their own.

Brand Private Messages
Page admins and fans can now talk privately.

• Fans and visitors can now private message Page Admins.
• Page Admins can NOT initiate private messages with fans and visitors.
• Page Admins can turn private messaging off in Settings, but we recommend you keep it.
• Think of it as the Direct Message (DM) feature on Twitter – you most likely will not get very many, but when you do, often they are helpful.
• Talk to your community manager about how to deal with incoming private messages. Consider the process for dealing with “Contact Us” inquiries or Twitter DMs. If you receive an FAQ, consider turning it into future content.

How to Customize your Facebook Timeline [YouTube Video]

Long Answer:There’s been a lot of buzz since Facebook revealed that when a Facebook page owner posts a piece of content to their page, and it ends up in the News Feeds of their fans, only 16% of those fans will actually see the that post. This got us (and our clients) asking if Facebook caps or limits the number of fans that see each post. Our research shows that this 16% figure is an average as opposed to being an absolute cap.

The more engagement your posts get from fans, the better chance it will be seen. Using the calculation below, we’ve seen Facebook Post Reach for SiteLab’s own Facebook Page as high as 64%.

That does not change the fact that Facebook is introducing the ability to directly purchase more reach. So now, even if you’re bad at getting users to engage with your content (and therefore bad at getting fans to even see your content), you can pay your way to more visibility through Facebook’s new Reach Generator. This opens up another revenue stream for Facebook through a new advertising program, as opposed to changing how things work to make more money. Through this new venue Facebook guarantees you will reach “75% of your fans each month…Fans will see your message as a sponsored story on the right-hand side of their homepage or in their news feed on desktop or mobile.”¹

Want to calculate what percentage of your fans are actually seeing your content? Try this simple formula to see how your posts compare to the 16% average:

Post reach*/Total number of page likes = average organic reach per page post

*Facebook’s Reach in Insights doesn’t differentiate reach between fans and non-fans so use this number as a rough guide to determine how engaging your post is compared with your other posts.

¹https://www.facebook.com/business/fmc/guides/reach?campaign_id=250393211715997