Google has given clear instructions on how add the Google+ button to your website: http://bit.ly/GPlusButton

Google has begun to allow integration of its +1 button into 3rd party social media platforms. PowerReviews, BazaarVoice are among the first to integrate the button. From the Google webmaster central blog, movie review site can now allow visitors to share posts containing the title, movie poster and a brief synopsis:

Are you ready to add the Google+ button to your site?

“News near you” in Google News – How does it impact the users?
‘News on the move’ is more than just an accessory it is a necessity. Most of us like to hear the news and keep an eye on the pulse of the things happening around them, especially if it is happening in our community. In addition, if you are travelling to a new place then it is very important that you know what is happening around you so that you are aware of any closed roads, events and even the traffic situation. By Combing the rising trend of community news with news on the move Google has launched a feature called ‘News Near You’.
History
Localized news has been available on Google news since 2008. It allows you to update your location and get and instant access to the events and happening near and around your location. Now users can use this feature on their Android based smartphones and Apple iPhones by activating a feature called ‘News near you’.
How to activate ‘News near you’ on your phone
Activating this feature is simple. On your phone log in to news.google.com, a pop up will appear asking if you want to share your location. Click on ‘yes’ and the new section of news near you will appear at the bottom of your homepage.
Going on a vacation? Or want to shop on a new location? Don’t forget to activate this feature on your mobile. You will have instant and correct access to the happenings on your locations and new events, on-going sales etc. on your fingertips.
This wonderful feature eliminates the need of having to read all the irrelevant news on when you are looking for some important information in the local area. Another big advantage of using this feature on your mobile phone is that you get instant updates of the local happenings around you and even the videos (in collaboration with YouTube).

‘News on the move’ is more than just an accessory it is a necessity. Most of us like to hear the news and keep an eye on the pulse of the things happening around them, especially if it is happening in our community. In addition, if you are travelling to a new place then it is very important that you know what is happening around you so that you are aware of any closed roads, events and even the traffic situation. By Combing the rising trend of community news with news on the move Google has launched a feature called ‘News Near You’.

History
Localized news has been available on Google news since 2008. It allows you to update your location and get and instant access to the events and happening near and around your location. Now users can use this feature on their Android based smartphones and Apple iPhones by activating a feature called ‘News near you’.

How to activate ‘News near you’ on your phone
Activating this feature is simple. On your phone log in to news.google.com, a pop up will appear asking if you want to share your location. Click on ‘yes’ and the new section of news near you will appear at the bottom of your homepage.
Going on a vacation? Or want to shop on a new location? Don’t forget to activate this feature on your mobile. You will have instant and correct access to the happenings on your locations and new events, on-going sales etc. on your fingertips.

This wonderful feature eliminates the need of having to read all the irrelevant news on when you are looking for some important information in the local area. Another big advantage of using this feature on your mobile phone is that you get instant updates of the local happenings around you and even the videos (in collaboration with YouTube).

Media relations is a priority for all companies… and of course it isn’t cheap. Just check your last year bill of PR agencies and you will know what I am talking about.  There’s always going to be some sort of place for this in corporate communication/marketing, but wouldn’t you want to take more control over the process? Here is one answer —> Corporate Blog as it allows brands to communicate directly to your target market.

You can participate in an interview and one never knows what will show up in print or online until you see it. Doing this will cost you reach, money and credibility. So, what if you could take the media out of the equation?

With a blog, you can put your message out into the market in your own words, without having to worry about whether a journalist’s story will mention your competitors, interpret your findings differently or, quite frankly, say anything that you aren’t. You and your team craft the message, secure the requisite approvals and publish it on your own timeline. You may decide to promote it through the media (along with other channels), but ultimately, your customers are hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth.

You have to invest in developing your audience and keeping them engaged. So this means that corporate blogging is an ongoing activity that will need time, effort and resources. Over time, as you’ve accumulated readers and generated some commitment to your content among them, you’ll be able to take to them directly what you used to take to the press with fingers crossed for lots of pickups and favorable coverage.

Does this mean that corporate blog is the panacea? Of course not.

There are some areas and issues where you’ll want to ensure your media relationships are strong, especially if your company is dealing with a crisis, or if you want to take the lead on an issue before others can take their spin on it. And finally, you’ll probably want to use your PR team to promote your corporate blog. The difference, however, is that your company won’t be as reliant on the media; you’ll regain “some” control over your communications.

Well, here is another move that gets Google closer to their quest for world domination. Now, using Gmail you can call your friends and family on home phone or cellphone.

Calls to the U.S. and Canada will remain free through the rest of the year. The unlimited voice plans for top providers Verizon and AT&T are $69.99 per month. The international rates, too, seem reasonable for now: 2 cents a minute for calls to the U.K., France, Germany, China and Japan. Over 1,000,000 calls placed from Gmail in just 24 hours, as per tweet from Google.

Google has plans to release this feature for businesses soon….with a fee of course. Google has been generally slow to tap the corporate market — which could be a driver for Google to offer Gmail calls at a competitive rate.

Here is an excerpt from CNN:

“Google is taking the easy road of arming their army of fans and users with something just good enough to use — but not necessarily good enough to meet enterprise requirements — and standing back and watching to see how they can shape the market,” said Tom Austin, Google applications analyst at Gartner.

As a result, Austin said he believes Google’s paid revenue stream for the service will be quite small: just $20.3 million per quarter, or 0.3% of Google’s second quarter revenue.

What are your thoughts?

Who wouldn’t like to get influential on Twitter? But, having most followers means you have the most influence? NO, says a recent HP Labs study. The study suggests that most Twitter users are passive and the Twitter users with the most influence are those who retweet. Here are also some FAQs on the study.

According to the research, it is important to separate the concept of “influence” from “popularity.” While a user on Twitter may have a large number of followers, his or her influence is more strongly associated with their engagement with the network, rather than the total number of followers or retweets. To identify Twitter influencers, the authors devised an algorithm called the IP Algorithm. This algorithm assigns a relative influence score and passivity score to every user:

• “Influence” depends on both the quantity and quality of the user’s audience
• “Passivity” is a measure of how difficult it is for other users to influence him or her

The algorithm makes the following assumptions:

• Influence score depends on the number of people the user influences as well as their passivity.
• Influence score depends on how dedicated the people the user influences are. Dedication is measured by the amount of attention a user pays to a given one as compared to everyone else.
• A user’s passivity score depends on the influence of those who he’s exposed to but not influenced by.
• A user’s passivity score depends on how much he rejects other user’s influence compared to everyone else.

2.5 million users were included in the dataset show that the influence measure is a good predictor of URL clicks, outperforming several other measures .

The study concludes: “This study shows that the correlation between popularity and influence is weaker than it might be expected. This is a reflection of the fact that for information to propagate in a network, individuals need to forward it to the other members, thus having to actively engage rather than passively read it and cease to act on it.” The authors also see their measure of influence applicable to other social networks.

If you are running a small business and have questions about anything related to your business. Ask.Sprouter.com has a panel of entrepreneurs who are available to answer questions. ..including some celebrity experts.

So, all you entrepreneurs, if you have any questions about your business, then, jump into this forum by answering a simple question in 140 characters or less: “What are you working on?”.

If you looking for a complete Social CRM solution, then, definitely look at JitterJam.

Some benefits for your campaign

• Gathers information about social contacts — JitterJam collects the brand’s contacts from their social accounts (Twitter friends and followers, Facebook contacts, etc.) and automatically imports them into their JitterJam database.

•  Social listening and engagement — Brands can create social searches to find conversations on the real-time web about their brands, their products, their markets, their competitors and more across a number of channels. JitterJam collects the results and stores them for the brand to review. Each of these conversations is immediately actionable. JitterJam also highlights the most important conversations for prioritization.

• List of key influencers — The integrated Jitterater Social Rating Engine estimates the influence and reach of individuals and assigns a numerical rating for each person based on the various elements of their social profile, including Twitter and Facebook accounts, blogs, websites, etc. This information is available for each social conversation found in the brand’s social searches and in each of the social profiles for the brand’s contacts.

• Puts privacy in the hands of the users — JitterJam has developed the Make Me Happy™ permission marketing system to let consumers set the rules of engagement — and to enable the brand to send only the information that each individual wants

Additional Feature summary

1. Jitterater™ Social Rating Engine: Rates influence and reach for each individual and allows brands to easily identify key influencers

2. Enhanced Make Me Happy™ Permission Marketing System: Create customized opt-in forms and pages for different channels, campaigns and markets

3. Streamlined User Interface and Social Search Hot List: Get to your most important conversations and contacts quickly and easily

4. Enhanced Metrics: Measure reach and impressions per message, identify those sharing your updates, more buzz and trend analytics

5. Additional Enhancements: YouTube, automatic database development, Twitter favorites and more.

JitterJam has four pricing tiers ranging from $290 to $1,290 per month. Pricing packages are based upon the number of social contact points in the database and the number of social searches that are defined/in use by the business.