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?

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.

According to the R2i study, a majority of marketing professionals view social media as essential to their business, most have not made any money using it. The R2i study makes a compelling case for a social media strategy. The study compared the 35% of companies that reported increased revenue or profit using social media with the companies that did not report a growth outcome. Those benefiting were:

• About twice as likely to have a formal social media strategy
• Almost twice as likely to have a dedicated headcount for managing social media
• About twice as likely to rate themselves as “proficient” or “expert”
• Almost three times as likely to have read a book on social media

Also, another study from Digital Brand Expressions had some interesting findings. The study found 88% agree it is important to have such a plan, suggesting perhaps the lack of a cohesive planning process is preventing the company from moving forward to adopt strategies for the social channel.

Here are some other key findings:

Of those companies that work from some plan, 94% say that marketing activities are included in the plan and 71% say that the Marketing Department is the group with the primary responsibility for creating and maintaining the firm’s social media presence.

• 71% indicate they use social media for public relations communications,
• 55% say that they use social media for sales-related activities.
• 16% say their human resources team is using social media
• Just 26% use it for customer service

Companies that don’t have a strategic plan but think it is important to create one, the number one activity rated as important to include in a social media plan is allocating resources for ongoing activities.

So, all you companies out there, better take notice of social media and have a plan.

TubeMogul research sample spans 60.2 milion views of 25 major video advertising campaigns that ran identical videos within Facebook ad units (four types) and comparable click-to-play video ad units on publisher sites (i.e. standalone 300×250 ad units). The results were compared based on resulting cost, viewing-time and much more.

Facebook ranked as the 5th most popular video site in April according to Comscore, putting it above other popular properties like Hulu. Surprisingly, Facebook also surpassed other sources, like Google, Twitter, Yahoo and Bing, in video discovery. Video completion rates on Facebook compared with offsite revealed Facebook to have superior completion rates around 40% +, nearly 6-10% higher than offsite views.

Another interesting statistic revealed was that videos related to virtual currency and in-banner video ads in apps were about 20% greater than offsite displays. Viewers on Facebook and twitter were found more likely to share, nearly 2% more, virtual currency and in-banner display videos ads with friends compared to other sites.

In conclusion, virtual currency was the leader in most metrics, including price which makes sense as the views are incentivized. Offer platforms like Gwallet specialize in offering developers an frame with branded videos their consumers can watch in exchange for virtual currency. Virtual currency ads also experienced higher click through rates and turned out to be the best buy on a cost-per-view basis.

Twitter announced the launch of tagging tweets with specific places called “Twitter Places”. Several other features of this launch include:

• Foursquare and Gowalla integration: Many Foursquare and Gowalla users publish check-ins to Twitter. Location is a key component of these Tweets, so we worked closely with both companies to associate a Twitter Place with Tweets generated by these services. This means that if you click on a Twitter Place, such as “Ritual Roasters,” you will see standard Tweets and check-ins from Foursquare and Gowalla.
• API: We are releasing API functionality that lets developers integrate Twitter Places into their applications.
• Support for more browsers: Now, you can add location to your Tweets from any browser—Safari and Internet Explorer, in addition to Chrome or Firefox.

Here are my thoughts:

1) What does it do to Foursquare or Gowalla? Will people prefer social badges over location?

2) This is still not a Facebook killer; I am sure pretty soon Facebook will launch location based service. So, what is the real value?

3) As users are getting ore and more savvy and knowledgeable about social networks, does location tweets expose them more to the outside world? User might share their location on twitter but if something was to happen to their car or house “while they were out” can be a cause of concern.

4) Finally, is this maneuver to monetize Twitter? Not sure I would like to share my location information for making money for twitter.

No one has really been able to crack the nut for location based services, but definitely there is potential in it. Love to hear your thoughts.