Your Google+ Tips of the Week | Issue 111

Google+ Tips of the Week - July 26/14 issue 111

• Hangouts Events SEO - 10 Video SEO Tips
• Grow Your Following on Google+
• Showcase App for Hangouts On Air

Google+ Hangouts Events and SEO

Ronnie Bincer posted the news last week that Google+ was rolling out an experiment allowing us to find YouTube Live Events or Hangouts On Air on Google search.

For example, if I created a HOA Event featuring Ronnie talking about his Hangout Mastery Community, you could do a search for "Ronnie Bincer" and  find my event. Then you'd be able you to click the "watch live event" icon and watch it live.

Watch a live event

A live event will start to show up in search up to 3 hours before it starts. Here’s how to watch a live event:

1. Go to google.com and search for the event or the name of anyone in the event.
2. Click Watch live event to be taken to the event page.

If the event is happening now, you can touch the play on the video to watch the event live.

If the event is happening later in the day, click Yes under "Are you going to watch?" to add the event to your Google Calendar.

There’s not a lot of information as to what ranking and authority determines your ability to show up, but optimizing the Event and YouTube video certainly can’t hurt.

And regardless if this experiment rolls out in your area, good SEO practices will help your HOA be found in regular search. (Especially personalized.)

Event and Video SEO tips:

1. Optimize the title of the Event/Video for relevant keywords.

2. Keep the title short (within 70 characters) and the most important, at the front.

3. Be sure the title reflects the content.

4. Write a detailed description and include keywords.

5. Keep the first line of your description brief as it will appear as a snippet.

6. Before your Event goes live, go to your YouTube Live Events and enter same details .

7. Add annotations and CTAs (call to actions) .

8. Use tags that are referred to in the video.

9. Add the video to a playlist on your channel. Mine is G+LunchBunch Shows. 

10. Embed the video on your blog with a summary or time stamp and share on social.

  

Grow Your Following on Google+

And this just in….

Showcase App for Hangouts On Air (pdf)

(click above link for PDF)

This news caused a ripple in the G+ stream on Thursday when Google rolled out this much anticipated HOA app.

I much prefer “showcase” to  “shopping” as it was called in beta as the latter brings Chiapets and Chop O Matic to mind.

“Using the new Showcase app, hosts can now direct viewers to websites, merchandise, YouTube videos, your Google+ profile and Google Play content, all in a rich display on the right-hand side of the Hangout broadcast.”

I ran a bit of a test with it and am including some screen captures here to give you an idea of what it looks like.

I'll checking it out in more detail soon, but from what I see, it behaves much like the Q/A app insomuch as it appears on the HOA Event page video placeholder along with the  Start - Trailer - Q/A icons.

Video placeholder on Event Page

Will open side "showcase" panel

Once you click on the Showcase App icon on the left menu bar, a side panel opens where you can enter a link to a website.

For this test, I included links to: my Subscriber Opt-In form, Website and G+ Community.

edit image slideshow

If you have multiple images on your site, they will scroll on the sidebar in slideshow format. You can edit which will show.

Pre Broadcast view on Event Page

As with the QA app, this works only for hosting a SHOAE (Scheduled Hangout On Air Event).
Once you create the event:

1. Activate the Showcase icon

2. Click Start and enter the HOA, 

3. Enter the links you want to appear in the Showcase panel. (You might need to activate it from the side apps menu - writing this on same day it rolled out. :-)

4. Images on site you linked to will appear in slideshow. You can edit images and text you want to appear. 

5. Click on "Show item" save. Only those items you choose will be seen by viewers.
Note; on replays, all items you've shown are displayed.

6. Exit the HOA environment

7. Good idea to deactivate the Showcase app (list will be saved) This allows people to leave comments on the event page if they've hit the start arrow on the video.
If that happens, a new window opens which will hide the Event comments. 

From Showcase App for Hangouts On Air PDF

Getting Started

• Click on the Hangouts icon in the navigation bar, then click “Start a Hangout On Air.”
• Click the “Showcase” icon on the Hangout Event Page, then click “Play.”
• Enter the desired website URLs. Click ‘Show item’ to check URLs have autosaved.
• Note that if your Hangout is scheduled for a later date, you can disable the app
• until right before your event and it will save all of your cards.

Tips

• Link to websites with multiple images to showcase a slideshow of images
• on a card.
• Click “Edit” to remove images or edit text within the card.
• Use the toggles to hide and unhide the card from your audience.
• Leave the Showcase App (not the HOA) by clicking on the “X” in the top right corner.

Use Cases

The Showcase App can help create a more engaging experience during your live 

broadcasted Hangout.

You can:

• Sell merchandise

• Reveal new video content using YouTube 
• Promote a film or album release with links to ticket sales, trailers and
• Google Play content
• Rally constituents or build awareness for key causes and issues by linking to 
• relevant resources and websites 

plus:

• Link to your Subscriber or Webinar Landing Page
• Link to a previous HOA or your HOA YouTube Channel
• Link to websites/articles of your guests

How do you see using the Showcase App?

Thank you very much for sharing your time with me.

I hope you found this helpful and that if you did, you'll share this newsletter with your friends.

Although the LunchBunch show is taking a summer holiday, you can catch up on past shows on my YouTube channel or Google+ Page.