Google+ page stories: North Bowl

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of posts about small businesses on Google+ and their tips and tricks for managing a great page. Visit our YouTube channel to see all the videos in this series and join the discussion on the Google+ Your Business page.

Recently we introduced you to Best Made Company, a group of outdoor enthusiasts that specializes in designing and handcrafting wilderness supplies. Next up we have North Bowl, a 21,000-square-foot bowling center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Oron Daskal and his staff are passionate about creating a fun, social space at the lounge and alley for their local community. In fact, he says, he probably “sees the most high fives in the city.”



One of the great things about Google+ Pages is the ability to share relevant content with the right people using Google+ Circles. Take a tip from North Bowl and learn how you can use circles with your page:



Want to get started with circles? Here are some quick tips:

• Create circles to target messages to particular groups. Say you have multiple locations, you may want to organize your followers by geographic areas, and thus, send deal updates to the most relevant people. Or say you want to share information with your employees. Just put them in a circle and make sure that only they get the message.
• Share your circles. Have you built a circle featuring all the experts in your field? Share it with the Google+ community! Click the Circles icon at the top of Google+, select the circle you’d like to share, and hit “Share this circle” at the top right of the page.
• Edit the order of your Circles. In your Circles dashboard, just click and hold on a circle in order to drag it to a new position on the page.

Want to learn more? Visit the Google+ Your Business site, and stay tuned for more Google+ stories and tips from small businesses. You can also watch all our Google+ page stories on YouTube.

How does your business use circles? Join the discussion on the Google+ Your Business page and tag your posts #mybusinessstory.

Posted by Evelyn Lee, Google+ Pages Associate Product Marketing Manager

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TalkBin Stories: Patama Roj of Fraiche

Editor’s Note: TalkBin enables customers to send mobile messages to business owners in real-time, like a digital comment card. To learn more, visit talkbin.com.

The pace of life for a small business owner is unrelenting. Just ask Patama Roj, co-founder and owner of Fraiche, a company based in Palo Alto, California that serves homemade organic fresh and frozen yogurt, coffee and breakfast goods. Patama is dedicated to serving food that "speaks for itself," and customers are loving it.

With three locations though (two in Palo Alto and one in San Francisco), it’s hard to understand what’s going on across the business. That’s why Patama started using TalkBin to stay connected with customers even when she’s not in a particular store. Customers ask questions and provide feedback, which helps her understand exactly what's going on in each location. "It was important for me to find a way to get this feedback real-time," she says. And with TalkBin, business owners like Patama can receive this instant feedback without sharing personal mobile phone information, since TalkBin provides a special, customer-facing phone number and forwards feedback to your phone or email.

The ability to receive TalkBin messages on her cell phone makes responding quick and convenient for Patama as well. "Customers are always surprised to hear they're getting a text back from the owner!” she says.

Interested in using TalkBin in your store too? Get three months free when you sign up with promo code BLOGSMB-2 at www.talkbin.com/signup/user.

Posted by Qasar Younis, Product Manager

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Protect your passwords, protect your business

Managing your business, even if it's a real-world store with a physical address, is increasingly moving into the online space. With that comes the need to maintain good online security practices to protect both your own information and that of your customers. Behind your password lies a wealth of data that can be very interesting to your competitors and criminals. You should see this data as a commodity, just like the product you are selling. And just like your product, you don’t want it to fall into the wrong hands.

Here’s what you can do to help protect your business online:

Use strong, unique passwords. Cyber-criminals use sophisticated tools that can rapidly decipher passwords. Did you know that one of the most common passwords is actually ‘password’? It’s recommended to use a password with a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols. Create a unique password that's unrelated to your personal information. For example if you sell flowers, don’t have ‘flowers’ in your password.

Memorize your passwords or keep them secret. Would you leave the key to your office in the door when you leave? Obviously not. Yet many people leave notes by their desks with their most used passwords or leave their screens unlocked. This leaves the door to your systems available to be unlocked by anyone who discovers its passwords. If you have to write down your passwords, keep them in a secret place. If you have to save your passwords on your computer, avoid giving the file an obvious name, such as ‘my passwords.’

Don't re-use passwords for important accounts, especially important accounts like email and online banking. Re-using passwords is risky: if someone figures out your password for one service, that person could potentially gain access to your private email, address, and even your money.

Add extra security. If you have a Google Account, you can install 2-step verification which will add an extra layer of security by requiring you to have access to your phone--as well as your username and password--when you sign in. This means that if someone steals or guesses your password, the potential hijacker still can't sign in to your account because they don't have your phone.

Run regular anti-virus scans. If you get malware on your system, it may be programmed to look for passwords either typed in or saved. And it doesn’t hurt to change your passwords every once in awhile too.

Share these resources with your colleagues to help keep them safe and secure online:

• Online security videos:
• Strong Passwords (also earlier in this post)
• Social Engineering
• Understanding Phishing
  
• Read these tips for staying more secure on the web, including:
• Phishing
• Malware
• Secure sites
• Safe networks
• Mobile security
• Locking your screen
• Google’s security tools

Posted by Katrina Blake Buffini, Risk Analyst

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Connect with Googlers and users in our Google+ Help Desk Hangouts

There’s nothing quite like talking to your customers face to face—being able to hear their feedback and questions directly, and strengthening those relationships. A message we come back to again and again on the Small Business Blog is the importance of connecting with and understanding your customers, whether you’re a small business or a company as large as Google. And so, a few months ago, the Google+ Pages team decided to practice what we preach by giving Page admins an opportunity to connect with us via a Google+ Hangout.

The response was overwhelming. Over the course of three hours, our team met with more than 350 Google+ users. We got to know one another, collected feedback, and listened to what business owners had to say about Google+ Pages.

Yesterday we hosted another round of these Help Desk Hangouts. We know not everyone can always make it for these, so we’ve collected a few of the more common questions we hear from business owners and answered them here:

Why should I have a Google+ Page?

Where to begin? Google+ offers you an incredible array of tools designed to help you get closer than ever to your customers. Use Hangouts to meet face-to-face, use circles to tailor your message to different audiences, and Ripples to figure out who’s sharing your content. You can also use Search on Google+ to tune into the conversation in real-time. Finally, Google+ is growing every day, and you want to make sure you’re where your customers are going.

How can I get people to follow me on Google+?

There are a number of things you can do here. Be sure to cross-promote. Put a brand badge on your website to let your customers add your page directly to their circles. Include links to your page in the e-mails you send and even create an “Add Us On Google+” sign to put up in your store. Second, identify the people who matter in your industry. Find them with search and Ripples, and build relationships from there. By resharing your content, they can help you build your audience. Third, and most importantly, post quality, creative, and exclusive content on your page. People will spread the word about things that excite, engage, and impact them.

Any other advice for creating good content for my page?

Google+ is fantastic for sharing videos and photos, so you should use rich media to spice up your updates. You should also use an informal, conversational tone. It goes a long way toward making your page seem approachable. Include calls to action that encourage your customers to engage — ask them questions about what they’re looking for, what they like and any feedback they may have about your product and services. Post information they can’t get anywhere else — let them know that Google+ is the place to look for the most up-to-date information about your company. And most importantly, just have fun! We’re learning too, so we’d love to hear what works (and what doesn’t) for you and your page.

What’s coming soon on Google+ Pages?

Our team is hard at work growing Google+ Pages, and we have a lot to do—a challenge we’re excited to take on. There’s lot more to come, so stay tuned in the coming months.

Thanks to those of you who joined our Hangouts yesterday, and for those of you who missed us, we hope you can drop by next time. Follow the Google+ Your Business page for updates about future Hangouts and new feature announcements.

Posted by Toby Stein, Google+ Community Manager

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Tell your business story with Google+ Pages

When we launched Google+ Pages last November, we saw more than a million businesses create new profiles to better connect with their customers. Page owners have been hosting Hangouts, updating their customers on the latest news and deals, and sharing exclusive photos and videos. We’ve loved the creativity and wanted to share what some business owners have been learning as they use Google+.

Over the next couple months, we’ll be introducing you to some cool small businesses who’ve recently joined Google+, both here on the Small Business Blog and on the Google+ Your Business page. We’ll be sharing what they’ve learned along with their tips and tricks for managing a great page.

First up: Meet Best Made Company, a group of outdoor enthusiasts that specializes in designing and handcrafting wilderness supplies. Their passion is to inspire people to experience the outdoors — a passion that inspired us to share their story.



If you’re just getting started on Google+, here are a couple quick tips on how to create a great page:

1. Select your profile photo. This is the first thing people will see, so choose a good representation of your business.
2. Make sure to add five scrapbook photos, complete the “About” section, and add links to other destinations where you can be found on the web. These three sections help you get your story out there. 
3. Decide on a tone for your page and stay consistent in your messaging. You want your posts to feel personal and authentic. You can even link your personal Google+ profile in the “About” section so people know who’s posting. 

Want to learn more? Visit the Google+ Your Business site, and stay tuned for more Google+ stories and tips from the following businesses:

• North Bowl 
• King Arthur Flour
• Loluma
• Birds Barbershop
• Happy Hound Play & Daycare
• CoffeeCakeKC
• The Pablove Foundation (non-profit)

Have Google+ stories and tips of your own to share? We’d love to hear them. Add the Google+ Your Business page to your circles and tag your posts #mybusinessstory.

Posted by Evelyn Lee, Google+ Pages Associate Product Marketing Manager

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Welcome customers into your business on Google

(Cross-posted on the Lat Long Blog.)

When we initially announced the Business Photos pilot program, we wanted to give business owners an easy way to get customers in the door online using interactive, high-quality, 360-degree images of places on Google Maps and on Google Search results. With thousands of businesses under our belt — from salons to gift shops — we’ve been hearing the same question again and again from both business owners and photographers alike: How can I participate?

Well, with the overwhelming success of the first pilot, we’ve decided to unveil a complementary initiative that will help us reach more interested business owners, more quickly: Trusted Photographers.

View Larger Map

Click and drag to view the inside of Spice Market, New York City.

It’s simple. Visit our new website and search for a Google Trusted Photographer in your area. Either email or call a photographer in your area to schedule a time and agree on a price that you will pay the photographer for a photoshoot of your business. This self-serve model makes for easier scheduling and quicker turnaround, while also supporting the local photographers in your community. During the hour it should take for the shoot, you can collaborate with the photographer about how best to display and capture your business. When finished, the photographer will upload the images to Google, and shortly thereafter, you’ll see 360-degree panoramic views of your business on Google.com, Google Maps and on your Google Places listing.

See how Business Photos has helped Toy Joy of Austin, Texas.

Trusted Photographers are available in 14 U.S. cities, as well as in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and France. Don’t see a photographer in your area? Let us know, as that will help us determine where more Trusted Photographers are needed.

Posted by Gadi Royz, Product Manager, Google Maps

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Limber and flexible IT: YogaWorks goes Google

(Cross posted from the Google Enterprise Blog)

Editor’s note: Today’s guest blogger is Jay DeCoons, COO of YogaWorks. Renowned for its excellence in classroom instruction and teacher training, YogaWorks delivers yoga training and classes in 60 cities around the world. Learn more about other organizations that have gone Google on our community map.

At YogaWorks, we first and foremost consider ourselves to be educators of yoga. Since opening our first location in 1987, we’ve expanded our reach across the world, which means we’ve had to figure out how to effectively scale a growing organization while continuing to deliver the best training instruction possible. When we first took a look at Google Apps, we thought it would be a great cost savings tool but as we’ve discovered, Google Apps has also allowed us to easily and flexibly connect our business throughout the world.

Prior to Google Apps, we used a hosted Microsoft Exchange server. While on Exchange, we had to set a 2 gigabyte inbox quota and had difficulty achieving a simple, scalable email deployment for our staff’s mobile devices. We also had a lot of offline processes that were cluttering the operations of our studio managers and producing a lot of excess paperwork, which ran counter to our goal of running a sustainable and eco-friendly company. At the time, our IT costs were roughly $130 per user per year.

When we were evaluating Google Apps, we realized that the solution would allow us to further our green-friendly mission by reducing our overall environmental footprint and would enable us to create a truly mobile workforce with anytime, anywhere data access. We also saw the potential Google Apps held for collaboration among team members, with its unique communication and sharing capabilities.

We went Google with the help of Google Apps Authorized Reseller Dito, who assisted us in setting up Apps and training our team. With Google Apps, we’ve been able to reduce our total IT costs by over 60%. The ability to share documents and reach out to teammates quickly has boosted the morale and sense of community across our team. Mobility has also been a key gain for us, as Google Apps allows us to work seamlessly while on the go across our 24 studios and 60 cities where we hold teacher trainings. Through Google Docs, we have been able to save paper and eliminate tedious offline processes, making our day-to-day operation more environmentally-friendly and efficient.

Google Apps has helped us create a more efficient, more excited and more productive workforce, which in turn has helped us focus on what we care most about: bringing safe, compassionate and skillful teaching of yoga to all.

Posted by Jay DeCoons, COO of YogaWorks

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