Yesterday, Google unveiled Business Pages for Google+, a feature they’ve been promising for months. At first only a handful of businesses were able to create a page but it now seems (at least for us!) that Google have opened up business pages to the public and business pages are springing up left, right and centre.

Before you do anything else – circle our page on Google+ by clicking this button:

Google+ Business Page Layout

Here’s how our brand new Google+ business page looks:

As the page is similar to a personal profile you can use our guide to pimping your Google+ profile on business pages too. Make sure you stand out from the crowd!

The business page concept will be very familiar to those who use Facebook Pages. Even the way you switch between personal and business profiles with a drop down menu is straight from Facebook: Read the rest of "Google+ Business Pages Comprehensive Guide"

Posted by Heather Buckley in Google+, News, Social Media on November 8th, 2011| 1 Comment »

Eric Schmidt Sees Siri as a Threat to Google

If you wish to build your own iPhone and iPad apps to enter the booming mobile app market then come on our brand new iPhone App Development Course. This 5-day course is leading the way in providing developers with the niche skills to develop mobile apps.

Responding to questions regarding Google’s dominance in the search engine market, Eric Schmidt claimed “the history of the technology industry shows that technologies usually get supplanted by completely new models. Therefore, the question is not necessarily, “Who is going to beat Google in search?” but also, “What new model might take the place of search?””

We have already looked at how new mobile technologies are replacing traditional desktop practices but with these revelations, a company that dominates whole sectors of desktop computing is recognising the change to mobile.

Eric Schmidt on Google’s Competition

In September, Google chairman Eric Schmidt appeared before a Senate antitrust committee to defend Google against allegations of rigging results to disadvantage their competition. Along with the hearing, a number of senators left Schmidt with written questions to which the answers have just been released. Interestingly, Scmidt repeatedly refers to Apple’s Siri as a main search competitor – contrary to his claims in September 2010 that Apple were not a threat to Google’s search engine operations.

Schmidt’s admittance that a voice-activated mobile search tool is a serious threat to Google’s traditional search is recognition from the search giants themselves that web access is changing. The future is mobile. Read the rest of "Apple’s Siri a Threat to Google Search"

Posted by Craig Charley in Mobile App Development, News, Web Design, Web Design Training on November 7th, 2011| 1 Comment »

UPDATE: You no longer have to install a preview of Facebook Timeline – it has rolled out worldwide and is no mandatory. But don’t fret! You can read all about how to set up your profile before showing it to the world in our Complete Facebook Timeline Guide. We cover how to set a cover image, how to change your privacy settings, how to use the new features and even how to  delete your profile if you don’t like Facebook anymore!

Facebook has officially announced the new Facebook Profile changes that will radically change the way we see and use Facebook. They demonstrated it earlier this week at the f8 conference.

Update: Due to an attempted law suit by Chicago-based Timelines.com Facebook have postponed the launch of Facebook timeline. Timelines.com’s plea for a temporary restraining order has been denied by a federal judge but Facebook have agreed to hold back on a full timeline launch until the parties meet in court on Tuesday. Interestingly the case has revealed that as of Friday over 1 million Facebook users have used the developer workaround to get the timeline early with 100-200 thousand extra sign ups per day.  

The “Timeline”  interface is more than just a surface redesign of the Facebook Profile.

The Timeline begins by showing users images in order of date. Newest information is presented in a Ticker on profile page, including  “stories” about games that users have played, music listened to from Spotify and films watched from Netflix.

Below you can see Andy’s profile after he installed the preview:

Andy's Facebook Timeline in action.

Sean Corcoran a research analyst  from Forrester called it “word of mouth on steroids”.

“This won’t look like the behavioural data some of us are used to in the display advertising market but eventually it could be even better if activity patterns are included – simply because it can be more relevant. Just imagine Ticketmaster sending you a custom offer for Radiohead tickets for you and your friend because you listened to their music together.”

Will timelines help Facebook regain it’s lead as the preferred Social Networking site?

Chris Saad, Echo co-founder, said after the announcement:

“Before f8 it was clear that Google+ was 1 or 2 years behind FB. Now they are 3 or 4,”

He went on to say that Facebook wields the ultimate “attention management platform” online.

Google have been the master data collectors for years, (see Why Google will rule the World). Sean Corcoran points out that Facebook enhanced user engagement data will provide more detail about a user’s content, behaviour and tastes over several years. I think that it’s good that Facebook have decided to do something radically different from Google+, it will become more about using both in different ways than about using one or the other.

Whilst Timeline is not yet available to everyone, we have found a quick fix for those not afraid of a bit of tech jiggery pokery there is an early preview available for developers. Don’t blame me if you don’t know what you are doing though.

How to install Timeline on your Facebook account:

1. Click this link https://developers.facebook.com/apps
2. Click on +Create New App
3. Add the App display name and namespace, call it anything you like.
4. The next page shows the App ID and Secret and other details.
5. Click on Open Graph on the left sidebar
6. Simply define what your dummy app is capable of, like ‘Making my first App’ and click Get Started
7. The next page allows you to select Action Types
8. Scroll down and click Save Changes and Next
9. The next page allows you to select Time Aggregrations, scroll down and click Save and Finish.

Go you! You have created a dummy Facebook app using Open Graph.

Now when you visit your Facebook profile, Facebook will give you the option to switch to Timeline view.

If you need help to sharpen your skills in SEO, Social Media, Google Analytics, JavaScript, or Web Design take a look at the courses.

Posted by Heather Buckley in Facebook Tips and Tricks, Google+, News, Social Media on September 26th, 2011| 3 Comments »

Welcome to Part 2 of our BrightonSEO 2011 round up. We hope you enjoyed BrightonSEO Part 1 featuring our round up of round ups! Once again we’ve provided either the slides or video for each talk for those who missed the conference. These presentations are all from the afternoon session and include the six 20 : 20 slide talks where each speaker had 20 slides which changed automatically every 20 seconds. After a great morning the afternoon session had a lot to live up to – but that it did with some interesting talks featuring Mad Men, James Bond and internet cats.

Neil Walker – Links – SEO Value vs Client Expectations vs Cost

Neil Walker - Brighton SEO 2011

Neil was the first of the afternoon speakers and was presenting his findings from research he had conducted on both SEOs and clients to find out if they shared the same expectations on links.

He found that clients didn’t often know what links they were after and so it is the job of the SEO to be transparent with the client and explain the cost of links and link strategy.

Neil Walker gives his opinion on the conference along with his slides here.

Roger Warner – What Can Social Media Learn From Mad Men?

Roger Warner - Brighton SEO 2011

This proved to be a very popular talk with Roger using the TV show Mad Men to compare traditional advertising to SEO with the emphasis on learning from traditional methods to improved social media relations. Roger has posted up his talk in a nutshell using the following points:

• Social Media is not a spaceship – it’s a communications tool.
• Stories sell.
• Technology doesn’t.
• Ideas are everything.

Roger Warner’s slides and his talk in a nutshell.

Read the rest of "Brighton SEO 2011 – Round Up Part 2"

Posted by Heather Buckley in Brighton, Google Analytics, News, SEO, Social Media on September 20th, 2011| 2 Comments »

It’s been quite an eventful few weeks for Google+. It has taken the world by storm and established itself as the fastest growing social network in history attracting 20 million unique visitors in just three weeks.

New to Google+? Check out our Google+ Hints and Tips post

As an early adopter I’ve been watching the news and ebb and flow of trends .

First to catch fire was the “Facebook V Google+” story. Streams were flooded with animated gifs of Facebook slapping madness. Thankfully that trend has subsided. Maybe we’ll see animated gifs develop as an art form – or maybe not, I just deleted the example I found in this post as I can’t concentrate while they WONT KEEP STILL!

So will it kill Facebook? Not in my opinion. For a start there are age restrictions, so even if the teenyboppers want to join the party they can’t – and they are a really big part of the social graph.

Next there is the fact that people have been building their social networks for years; and it’s just too daunting a task to try and recreate that elsewhere. However Google+ is different in many ways and offers a new experience for users. Many will jump ship, of course, but I can’t see it being a mass exodus as first suggested.

For a start, early adopters were mainly tech people, developers, SEO consultants, some photographers and social media fanatics. This has shaped Google+ quite considerably and has already got the reputation of being a network for the geeky. For people like me, that’s great! My interests are all catered for here but I can’t see it catching on for my mum or my sons – not yet anyway. I love that I am not constantly invited to events I have no interest in and my stream is much cleaner and more interesting.

Like any new social group, there is a predictable pattern to its development. I know you geeks hate all the psycho, business babble but bear with me here. Truckman’s stages of group development spring to mind. The Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing model.

Forming

As I mentioned earlier, the inclusion of mainly geeks whilst in beta has been defining the development of Google+. Everyone who’s anyone in the world of computing and the Internet is already there. Businesses have been chomping at the bit for a piece of the action. It is obviously going to become a powerful tool for brand awareness, link building and community management. Read the rest of "The evolution of Google+"

Posted by Heather Buckley in Google Analytics, Google+, News, SEO, Social Media on July 29th, 2011| 3 Comments »

My Pimped Google+ Profile

Last week we published our guide  to customising your Google+ profile with a stylish tiled image effect using our Photoshop template.

We’ve been really pleased to see that loads of you are downloading the template and pimping up your Google Plus profiles with some really creative uses of the images.

So – we’ve showcased our favourites below.

WHAT’S MORE… we opened this up to the public vote with an amazing* prize for the winner

Voting NOW CLOSED!

Voting closedon Friday 22nd July at 9.30 – you can see the result and find out who our lucky winner was on on our VOTING FORM PAGE

*The Prize

Don’t get too excited – we’re not going to give away an iPad or anything!

The winner will receive (drum roll please)…. a £25 Amazon Voucher!!!! (that’s about $40 for those over the pond)

OK – its not a life changing prize – but it’s easily enough to buy this great t-shirt or 8 copies of X&Y by Coldplay

PLUS – the winner will have the kudos of being known as “Silicon Beach Training’s Favourite Pimped Google+ Profile”

Candidates

Here’s our shortlist of Customised Google+ Profiles…

Read the rest of "Competition – Best Personalised Google+ Profile"

Posted by Andy Trainer in Competitions, Google+, News, SEO, Social Media on July 14th, 2011| 13 Comments »

How to Customise Your Google+ Profile Page: Tiled Images

Check out our gallery of the most creative Google+ Profile designs – and vote for your favourite!

Download Template

Step 1:

Download and unzip our Photoshop Template

Step 2:

Open up the template in Photoshop. We’ve left the images of my face in the template so you can see how it all works – but if you don’t want to see my face (and I can sympathise with your position if you don’t) then either hide or delete the “Colin” Layers!

Next you’ll want to import the image (or images) that you want to use in your own profile.

To do this, select File > Place and select your image file.

Drag and resize it so its in the correct position, and hit enter to place it:

Click on the image for full size version

Read the rest of "How to Customise Your Google+ Profile Page"

Posted by Andy Trainer in Google+, New Free Resources, Photoshop, Social Media on July 9th, 2011| 23 Comments »

The web is alight with Google+ fever at the moment, and it seems that Google might have come up with a Social Networking concept that will truly challenge Facebook.

Like everyone else we’ve been getting to grips with how to get the best out of our profiles. Check out our Google+ Hints and Tips to benefit from what we know so far.

We’ve also devised a natty method for customising your Google+ profile design using tiled images.

pimp your-google+ profile

And what’s more we’ve put together a Photoshop Template to make it easy to implement for anyone who knows a bit of Photoshop (for those that don’t – we run a great 2-day Photoshop course here in Brighton!)

We’re sure you can all come up with some brilliant and creative ways of using the method to customize Google+ profiles that really stand out – we’d love to see the results – so if you use our template please post a link to your profile in the comments section so we can check out your work.

If you’re on Google Plus – follow us in the following places for all our goodies: Andy Trainer | Heather Buckley

Here’s our step by step guide to customize your Google+ Profile using our PSD Template.

NEW – Check out our selection of the most creative Google+ profile designs - you can vote for your favourite too!

Posted by Andy Trainer in Google+, News, SEO, Social Media on July 6th, 2011| 23 Comments »