Why we love Google Hangouts

We were recently invited to the Google Plus Page, 'Google Live Events' and just had to share it with you. The page lists all the Google Hangout Events happening right now, visit and Google+ connect with them here:

You can save the live events to your Google calendar and even publicise your own. Google Hangouts launched last summer at the same time as Google+ in the summer of last year is growing in popularity. 

There is a really useful post over at Social Media Examiner, which talks about five creative ways that businesses are using Google+ Hangouts. Including a live Q&A session with Cadburys UK and their customers. Read the article which talks about businesses using Google Hangouts here:

Google Hangouts enables you to share expert level information with your audience wherever they are. The free service is great alternative to Webinar's and are very simple to set up.

Google Hangouts allow individuals, groups and businesses to:

• Easily stream broadcasts directly into Google+, your YouTube channel and your website. (And if you are feeling confident enough you can broadcast live to the world).
• If the customer on the Google Hangout just wants to ask you a question they can sign on, chat and bring their questions. 
• Host a video chat instantly with up to 9 people (useful for in-house & partner meetings) Share files and documents with your hangout.
• Watch a YouTube video together and chat alongside it.
• Share your screen with others.
• Record your hangouts for viewing later. (useful for in-house meetings)

How businesses can use hangouts

Businesses may wish to hold themed hangouts and invite their customers to bring questions to the hangout on particular topics, for example a 'commercial property consultant' could invite their customers to ask questions on ‘flexible leasing options'. The following week the 'commercial property consultant' could hold another Google Hangout on a topic that was brought up at the last.  The main benefit of inviting customers to 'hangouts' is that you can segment customer needs and target them at a later date.

Businesses may also wish to:

• Offer customised coaching sessions using Google+ for time saving benefits as broadcast and published (to YouTube) virtual coaching sessions will help replace query emails and lengthly training documents.  This however could just be a simple 10 minute Q&A between your team and clients.
• Host a hangout where you interview a key member of your team or related partner or client.

How Rocktime are planning to use Google Hangouts

To reduce travel time, Rocktime are soon to set up virtual brainstorming hangouts with their client's and client's partners for training and brainstorming sessions. We have plans to host a few ‘how to chats’ with regards to search marketing, mobile websites, ecommerce and social media.
If this article has interested you and you are keen to look into the possibility of using Google Hangouts for your business, please get in touch with our sales team to discuss further.
 
In the meantime learn more about Google Hangouts and connect with us on Google+ by adding us to your circles,  Rocktime's Google+ profile page can be found here.

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Geek Video of the Month

This week's Geek Video comes via the Extreme Tech website, which is popular with our Technical Team as it provides comprehensive technical content about new products and technologies including reviews and resource links.

The video highlights that bionic eye implants are finally hitting the market. The video introduces the Laser Powered Bionic Eye or Nano Retina which gives 576 pixel grayscale vision to the blind - if their blindness is caused by a faulty retina.

The Natno Retina’s Bio- Retuna captures images directly in the eye, and a rechargeable battery powered mini laser powers the implant remotely.

Pretty exciting and geeky stuff.

You can read more about the progress with bionic eye implants in Europe and the USA, over at the Extreme Tech website here.

Author: Sarah Griffiths

What is Social Commerce

Social media has changed the way we shop online. Consumers are receiving advice from friends and family and businesses through social networking sites and the majority rely on feedback from social media to guide their purchases via researching online product reviews on blogs, Youtube, Twitter and Facebook.

There is a gorgeous (you have to see it!) Infographic here from Tab Juice, which shares with you the statistics, relating to Social Commerce, check it out:

Social Commerce Psychology of Shopping (Infographic).

Wikipedia definition of Social Commerce

"Social commerce is a subset of electronic commerce that involves using social media, online media that supports social interaction, and user contributions to assist in the online buying and selling of products and services.  More succinctly, social commerce is the use of social network(s) in the context of e-commerce transactions".

Read the full definition of Social Commerce here.

The shift from e-commerce to s-commerce

Mashable report that "the shift from e-commerce to s-commerce has only just begun and reports that revenues from social commerce are expected to reach $30 billion by 2015".

To help understand how to get social commerce right, take a look at four startups that are making e-commerce social right now. 

Turning social into sales

There are a number of strategic ways you can turn social into sales, such as:

• Integrate the social networks with your site ie: 'claim this offer on Facebook'.
• Consider how your products are found in social media, web and mobile.
• Identify the demand for products, by using social networks and social media research tools.
• Acquire customers from social networks by engaging within the networks.
• Could you offer more online gifting options?
• Consider whether you and your customers would benefit from Geo location offers. 
• Review your customer retention plan in the age of customer reviews and comparison sites. 
• Gain an understanding of your impact and publicise it for ROI. 

Interesting times ahead

We all continue to watch social commerce trends with interest.  Last year Rocktime set up an internal steering group to grow our e-commerce website solutions for social commerce further.  Back in July 2011 this blog had a sole focus on social commerce, for more information on social commerce view the social commerce blog posts here.

Are you making the most of Social Commerce opportunities on and off your website. Talk to our sales team today to help you determine your room to grow.

Contact our Sales team.

Also if you find a website that is doing a great job with social commerce interactions on and off their website, feel free to leave a comment below.

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Global E-commerce Opportunities

Our favourite website for keeping up to date with the latest internet statistics, Econsultancy, shared (September 2012) the results from a Search Laboratory whitepaper which uncovers the opportunities for global marketing for a UK enterprise organisation.  The complimentary White Paper is titled "Web Magnetism: Attracting global trade online" and is a must read for any business wanting to attract more international trade online.

The bespoke research identified the need for multilingual search marketing campaigns: the importance of customer centric approach to international growth and highlights why businesses may need to look further than Google for international trade.

With Global E-commerce sales likely to exceed $1 trillion next year and as a number of our clients, new and current are talking and working with us on the opportunities available for international marketing and international expansion of their websites, we would like to share with you a few of the report's key statistics.

You can also find these on the Econsultancy website in the form of a lovely infographic.

Note: The White Paper was informed by a UK wide independent research study in Q2 2012, which investigated the prevailing attitudes amongst 350 senior decision makes within 'large UK enterprises' (companies with 200 employees or more).

Some of the key statistics from the Search Laboratory report:

93% of UK organisations have been forced to rely heavily on the global markets to maintain or grow their revenues since the recession began.

64% of businesses are missing the potential opportunities that the Internet can bring them in terms of "being discovered" by overseas buyers.

81% of respondents deemed it important to have a locally registered internet domain in each of their overseas markets.

To find out more about how Rocktime can help your website grow for International E-commerce expansion, call in and talk to a member of our sales team.  Visit our contact us page here.

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Geek Video of the Month

The Airpod has nearly arrived, the car that runs on air!  We first heard about the Airpod back in 2009 when the Guardian Environment talked about the Airpod here.

The creator of the Car India’s Tata Motors is debuting the Airpod again. Since the previous debut, they have been working closely with MDI an engineering company which has been developing zero pollution engines since the early 90s.

The Airpod isn't powered via peddle power, (AKA Flintstone Stylee!!) it is powered by compressed air, which you refill with an external pump. The electric motor on board the Airport will 'refuel' while in motion (takes 2 minutes to fill up). The Car is ideally suited for urban city folk as top speed is 43mph. It looks tiny but we have read that it will seat 3 adults and a child, plus there is room for luggage.  There is no steering wheel inside, just a joystick (The movie Total Recall springs to mind, Google "Total Recall Taxi" to see what we mean!).

The video shows the car in action, it isn’t very compelling, perhaps they need help with their online marketing.

So would you consider getting an Airpod ? let us know in the comments section below.

Author: Sarah Griffiths and Fiona Anderson.

Facebook Search versus Google Search

The Flashlight Search Marketing team are big fans of blog and article share.  This week we would like to share with you an article we read over at The Next Web website .

The article discusses 'When, why, and how Facebook will take on Google in search'.

Here is a snippet from the article:

"Facebook and Google have been on a collision course for years, and their competitiveness has only increased with the release of Google+ just 14 months ago. As the service becomes more and more popular, one has to wonder how Facebook feels about the search giant encroaching on its turf. More importantly, one also has to wonder if Facebook has plans to hit Google back where it hurts"

Continue reading here: It's inevitable: When, why, and how Facebook will take on Google in search at The Next Web.

The idea of your search results being influenced by people in your network is what Google+ is all about. Facebook are simply doing the same. Or is it the other way round...?

The Next Web article gives further reasons to set a Facebook page for your business.  If you need any help with this, let Rocktime's Flashlight Search Marketing team know.

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Latest Update to Google Products

Rocktime's Flashlight Search Marketing team are tasked with keeping their clients up to date with latest changes to the three main search engines, Google, Bing and Yahoo.  This week we are reporting on the latest updates to Google Products. Reported over at the Google Blog, titled 'More spring cleaning' dated: 28/9/12.

In summary Google are closing down some of the less popular products, so that they don’t spread themselves too thin.  They have also reported on several product updates to benefit their customers.

Google write: 

"Technology offers so many opportunities to help improve users’ lives. This means it is really important to focus or we end up doing too much with too little impact. So today we’re winding down a bunch more features—bringing the total to nearly 60 since we started our “spring” clean last fall" .

The latest products to be put on the chopping block include the below:

AdSense for Feeds: which allowed publishers to place adverts on their RSS feeds (closing December 3rd for more information visit the AdSense Help Centre)

Classic Plus: which enabled people to upload of select images to use as their background on Google.com (Closing November 2012)

Spread sheet Gadgets: which enabled you to add customised features into Google spread sheets is being turned off. (Early 2013)

There are also several updates for the benefit of their customers:

Update to Google Storage: the storage available in Picasa and Google Drive will be consolidated.  Users will have 5GB of free storage across both services. (Being actioned November 2012)

Google Insights for Search: which we love, is being merged with Google Trends. Also they no longer will allow you to compare traffic to and audience of different websites. (in effect now)

Our favourite change is that they have introduced +1 reports in Google Webmaster Tools, to help publishers measure +1 activity on their pages.  They have also stated that measuring social media remains a priority for Google Analytics and will post another improvement update soon.

If you would like to find out if you are benefiting from having an awareness of Google Products, why not talk to the Flashlight Search Marketing team today.

Author: Sarah Griffiths