How to change your Banner Image on your GMB page

This tutorial shows you How to change your Banner Picture on your GMB page

Your banner picture is the large cover photo featured at the top of your profile and can be used to showcase your business or add your own touch of personality to your Business identity across Google.

You're free to change the image itself can be changed at any time.Remember 1st impressions last!!

1 Go to your Google My Business page.

2 Hover over the bottom right of the existing banner picture and click change change cover.

3 Select your cover photo by either of the following:

1. Select a photo from the Google's own gallery.
2. Upload an image from your computer
3. Select from a G + album that you have create
4. Choose from your previously used cover photos.

Note: The smallest photo that you can choose is 480 x 270 pixels, and the largest photo that you can choose is 2,120 x 1,192 pixels


Tip: We recommend choosing a photo that's 1,080 x 608 pixels. 

4 Click select cover photo.

5 Cut and crop the image to resize and position correctly resize the image.

6 Click Select cover photo.

Watch the video here....









For further information on other products and services  please visit our website. www.addpeople.co.uk

How to change your profile picture on Google Plus.

This tutorial shows you how to change your profile picture from your PC

1 Go to your Google My Business page.

2 Hover over the existing profile picture and click change profile picture.

3 Select a photo by either of the following:

1. Select a photo to upload a picture from your computer.
2. Select from a G + album that you have created on G+
3. Select a photo from existing photos that have been tagged as you, already uploaded to Google plus.
4. Take a pic from your Web cam
5. You can also drag and drop an image from your desktop

Tips:

• Bigger photos look better. The smallest size that you can use is 250 x 250 pixels.

• Any new profile photo that you upload from your computer will also be saved in your public "Profile photos" album and can be seen

Watch the video here.


 

For further information on other products and services  please visit our website. www.addpeople.co.uk

Share your circles to your Google My business page

Share your Circle to your GMB page

Google have created a way in which you can share an entire circle from your personal profile to a recipient.


So if you have organized your contact into Business related circles, these circles or groups of people now need to be shared to your GMB page.


By doing so you can then communicate directly to a specific group with a special offer, am evening invite, an event or a product launch.....

This is also useful to be able to share company contacts, friends and family members, or just interesting people in a field that you care about.

Now that your contacts have been imported and you have categorised your lists of contacts into circles or groups, you can then share particular circles to your GMB page.




To share one of your circles:



1 . Hover over the ‘Home’ icon on the left-hand side of your screen (while in Google+)

2 Click on the ‘People’ link 

3 Click ‘Your Circles’ at the top of the screen 

4 Click on the circle you want to share 

5  After everyone appears, the icon you clicked on should turn black

6 Hovering over the icon will show options to Edit, Share or Delete the Circle.

7 Click on the swoosh 

8 In the 'TO:' field type in YOUR OWN  GMB page name / business name

***ENSURE THAT ALL OTHER NAMES ARE REMOVED FROM THIS FIELD AS YOU COULD SHARING  A GROUP OF CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS CONTACTS****

Click Share!!

9 Your circle has now been shared to your GMB profile. You will receive a notification when accessing your GMB page.

10 Access your Google My Business page profile

11 Click on the 'new notifications' indicator (top right corner)

12 Click on View post...

13 Click on Add People..

14 Type in the name that you want to call your new circle and then click the blue button to create the circle

1. 

2.

Your imported circle will now be held within the your circles within our Google My Business page. 

You can now communicate from your Business, as your Business,  to the contacts held within the circle only!

For further information on other products and services  please visit our website. www.addpeople.co.uk

Creating circles - Organising your imported contacts in Google +

Now the contacts that you have imported can be categorised into Circles.


1 Login to your Google account and access your Google + profile.


2 Click on people from the navigation bar.

3 Select the recently imported group of contacts

4 From the list select who you you want to add to a circle. 

Click add:- 

5 Then click create new circle

6 Name the circle. Note that the name of the circle is not disclosed.




7 Repeat the process for all the contacts that you want to have held within specific circles.

For further information on other products and services  please visit our website. www.addpeople.co.uk

Importing contacts to Google Plus

The advantage that Google + has over other networks is that you can very simply target your posts and communicate with 'closed' group or circle of people.


Your interaction with them will be visible only to those individuals or group of people that you chose to be held within that particular circle.


Your circles may consist of High value clients, ex-customers, business acquaintances or work colleagues, the choice is yours on how you group your contacts and what name you give to the circle.


Its your choice which circle to place your contacts in and how you communicate to them.


Firstly, However you need to import your contacts from your other email accounts to your PERSONAL PROFILE and then organise them into circles.

• If you have a Yahoo or Hotmail account please login to these account, using a separate tab on your browser.
• For Outlook or Thunderbird you will need to export your contacts to a CSV file first. save your exported contacts CSV file on your desktop

Note: If your mail account is Outlook or Thunderbird you will need to export your contacts to a CSV file first. save your exported contacts CSV file on your desktop. (for outlook follow this tutorial http://goo.gl/5LCjuv)

1 Log into your Google account and click on '+your name' in the top right corner.

2 Hover you cursor over 'home in the top left hand corner of the page and select 'people'from the drop down.

3 Select and click on connect services from the drop down list and selct the profile / file that you want to import the contcats from.

4 When the contacts have been imported to your profile you will now see an extended categorised list when you select people that can now be used to communicate and interact with.

5 Now the contacts that you have imported cam be organised into Circles.

For further information on other products and services  please visit our website. www.addpeople.co.uk

Exporting contacts from Outlook - G plus

A helpful wizard has been created from within Outlook to aid the export of contacts. Contacts can be exported in many formats. For contacts to be imported into Google they need to be in a CSV format.

The following tutorial is guide on how to do this.


1 Open Outlook  > Select contacts

2 Select File > Select Import and Export 

Click next....

3 Select Export to a file 

Click next.....

4 Select Comma separated Values (windows)

Click next....

5 Ensure 'Contacts' is selected

Click next....

6 Save the file to be exported as a name of your choice

Click next....

Click finish

Your contacts should now be exported from outlook to your pc.





Follow http://goo.gl/5LCjuv to explain how to import your contacts to your Google plus page.

For further information on other products and services  please visit our website. www.addpeople.co.uk

Be C.R.U.E.L to improve the effectiveness of your Google business page

Why is it that your competitors are getting noticed by Google but your business seems to be left behind in the doldrums? Your business is 20 years old and you’ve had a website up and running for years, but some start-up has just begun using Google My Business and they’re really getting noticed online, whilst you remain firmly out in the cold. Where are you going wrong?

It’s all about values!

Google created their ‘My Business’ interface to make it easier for local businesses to get found online.  In this blog we will explain how keeping the acronym 'C.R.U.E.L' in mind when using your business page  can help to improve the chances of people finding your business when searching for relevant words or phrases.

Be C.R.U.E.L to gain credibility!

Take note of Google's values to get noticed

Understanding which qualities Google values is extremely important to the success of your business page.  Time and effort devoted to applying these values to your GMB profile will deliver a strong return. Consider this an ongoing process. Maintain the profile, encourage customer engagement, keep GMB relevant and up-to-date by using the following values to gain an advantage in a competitive market sector. 

To understand what kind of activity Google values we want you to think C.R.U.E.L thoughts. Use this acronym we have devised at Add People and it’ll help you to remember and understand the key principles of Google’s values. We’ll break it down for you to simplify things a little. 

C = Credible...  Google values businesses that are credible. Show them you have a good service and they’ll rate you higher. A credible company is seen as a trustworthy resource. Give your business integrity and Google will be happy to endorse your service. 

There are a number of ways you can make your business appear credible on Google my business. One option is to gain customer reviews. Encourage customers to leave positive reviews on your GMB profile. The more reviews you get the greater number of ‘stars’ you acquire. Get a five-star rating and this looks great on your page.  Not only will that attract attention from local customers looking for services, it’ll get picked up by Google as well.

R = Relevant...  Posting on your GMB profile is a good way of engaging with customers and offering extra value. Customers are more likely to engage with you if you keep posts fresh and constantly update your profile. Make sure that posts are relevant to the products or services that you sell though. 

Include relevant keywords within posts to make them more likely to show up in search results.  If you run a butcher’s shop in Basingstoke for example, use hashtags within your posts to highlight keywords relating to your business. Followers looking for ‘butchers in Basingstoke’ will be drawn to your profile if you include appropriate keywords and make your posts pertinent.    

Use Google’s free AdWords keyword planner tool to find keywords that perform well within your industry.  Keep posts relevant to your business sector and your profile has a really good chance of showing up higher in search results.  

U = Unique... Google values unique content so try to keep your posts original. Going back to the butcher’s shop in Basingstoke as an example, there are a number of tactics you could deploy to make your posts unique. You could include videos or pictures of your produce in a raw or freshly cooked state. There could be links to local companies that use your goods with testimonials stating how tasty your products are. You might want to include posts that highlight events in the local area, recipes, cooking tips or information about seasonal offers. 

E = Established...  If you want your business to rank well in local searches you need to show you are established within your industry. One way to get noticed by Google is to register your company in local business directories, just remember to use the same NAP (name, address and phone number) each time you register somewhere new.

Google will pick up on any external links that point back to your business.  The more external links it sees the more established it will think your business is. 

L= Locality...  When you perform a search for a business or service Google will take into consideration the location from which you’re performing the search and show you relevant, local businesses.  With this in mind, it's a good idea to make your posts relevant to the locality of your business or the area that you service.  For example you could include location in your hashtags - #ManchesterSEO.

Got all that? 

Keep these values in mind when using your business page to improve your business’ visibility online and get the most from your business page.

For more help and advice with your digital marketing please visit our website www.addpeople.co.uk.

Using Hashtags on your GMB page

Hashtags in your posts

A hashtag is a word or a phrase typed without spaces and preceded by the # symbol.  Hashtags are frequently used on social media and blogs to make posts easily discoverable for people searching for information or posts around the same topic.

When you publish posts on your Google business page you should include hashtags where relevant to gain more exposure for your business profile and brand beyond its existing followers

When a hashtag is added to a post, users who are not in your contact list or circles can find your posted content by searching for for the hashtagged word or phrase.

Auto Hashtags

If you make a post on your Google business page with a sufficient amount of text, Google will attempt to identify the subject of the post and auto-generate hashtags for you.  It's better if you can get into the habit of doing this yourself though to ensure that the most relevant and appropriate hashtags are chosen.

Using Hashtags in your posts

You can use hashtags by typing them somewhere within the text of your post. Here are some examples:

• New central #Manchester #italianrestaurant called #YOUR-RESTAURANT 
• Do you have that #fridayfeeling in #Manchester. This is how we roll here at #YOURBUSINESS

Hashtags can be used in a variety of ways to focus the post and attract attention: campaign, brand, trending, niche trending, content, event and location. 

Our advice would be limit the amount of hashtags that are used, you will rarely need to use more than 2-3 for any one post.

Follow these simple instructions on how to add a hashtag your post

Login to your Google account.

Access your Google Business page.

Create a post  by clicking on share what's new, add a link or attach an image or video.

Within the text box and as part of the the post, enter the word to be hashtagged preceded by a '#'.

Select who you intend to share the post with 'Public' or your circles and then finally hit the 'share' button and you're done!

Happy hashtagging!

If you're stuck for ideas on what to post on your business page read our blog: 'The Business Guide to Posting on Social Media' over on our website.

For more help and advice with your internet marketing please visit our website www.addpeople.co.uk.