Google+ Experiment Goes Awry
Today I'm going to tell you about an experiment I was testing out using Google+ and Google Reader and a few tools I'll share with you in a minute, but first I want to tell you what happened.
You know I love trying new things, and that's what we as marketers do to make sure we are keeping up with the times that are changing so fast. I had some pretty interesting feedback. Not everyone will understand, and they may block you or stop following you so I can see how it could get totally out of hand if it's not done correctly. Matter of fact it could be downright abused.
Out of roughly 1500 followers I had 3 people give me feedback. One actually blocked me, which is fine because that's one of the great things about being in a social network. You don't like what you see you can block posts or even quit following someone altogether.
Another one appreciated what I was sharing and +1ed one of the links I was sharing.
Then I had a person who left me a comment telling me exactly what they didn't like about what I was doing and that they were contemplating to stop following me. I don't blame them because it was a legitimate complaint. I explained to them that I was doing an experiment and I appreciated the feedback, and I apologized for any inconvenience.
What this taught me was that what I was doing was working, only I was doing it incorrectly, as I got carried away with the excitement with what I was trying to accomplish in the first place (getting free traffic to my links) so I can see how it would piss people off.
With that being said I now can see how to make this work without pissing everyone off.
So here's what I was doing...
I love using Google Reader to read my RSS feeds. One of the cool features of Google Reader is that when you are reading posts, you can add tags or labels, "star it" as a favorite, and you can share what you are reading via the Google+ share button.
That's what I did incorrectly and I had no intention of pissing people off. In my experimental stupor, I was sharing posts which then get posted to the Google+ stream. So what ended up happening was I was sharing these links in succession. Not good. I can really see how that would turn people off I know I don't like seeing link after link seconds apart from the same person.
So the moral of the story is.... DON'T DO THAT!
If you have links you want to share, I would highly recommend that you share them in a timely manner and not one right after the other or yes you are going to piss some people off.
Now on with the experiment and how you can use it to get free traffic too, only you will be able to do it the right way now. :-)
Here are the sites you will be using for free to do this.
Feedage HTML 2 RSS Conversion Tool
First you'll need to register an account with them.
The Feedage HTML2RSS conversion tool will create an RSS 2.0 Feed from any website. Simply Enter the URL to the webpage you want to convert and hit submit. Next go to Google Reader.
Google Reader
Once you've created your RSS feed login to Google Reader and then subscribe to the RSS feed you just created by adding the link provided to you from Feedage. You should be able to see posts to your link that you can now share with your circle of friends and followers.
Check out the posts you want to submit, NOT ONE RIGHT AFTER THE OTHER though, and add tags or labels in Google Readers case, and star it as a favorite. This accomplishes Three things.
One, the link you want to share will show up in the label stream, to whatever particular label you chose to others searching for the same term.
Two, other Google Readers that are following you will see your favorite links(starred).
And Three, your links will be indexed by Google!
Now it's time to use the Google+ share button, again NOT ONE RIGHT AFTER THE OTHER!
Find the posts you want to share and simply click on the G+ share button. When the screen pops up you can add a comment along with your link or not, either way it will work.
However, just FYI if you are posting a comment along with your link I recommend that you include hashtags(#) on your keywords within your comment post.
Example: #build #business #2012
What that does is, it creates a clickable link to that particular keyword, which will show your post in the "Trends" stream of all the people using the same hashtags or keywords. In other words more eyeballs to see your links.
That's it, now people will see your links in the Google+ stream and if you do it correctly NOT ONE RIGHT AFTER THE OTHER, people won't get mad at you and or maybe block or unfollow you and you'll get free traffic to your links.
One more IMPORTANT thing I should point out. If you do abuse this you could possibly risk having your account terminated by Google.
Right now it is still a work in progress, while I am seeing clicks to my links, I see the huge potential this has for marketers who are willing to put in a bit of efforts into their marketing strategies.
Just be courteous and DON'T ABUSE IT!
I'm not sure how this will work in other Feed Reader sites but I will be looking into it and keep you updated.
To Your Success,
Chad Flick
You know I love trying new things, and that's what we as marketers do to make sure we are keeping up with the times that are changing so fast. I had some pretty interesting feedback. Not everyone will understand, and they may block you or stop following you so I can see how it could get totally out of hand if it's not done correctly. Matter of fact it could be downright abused.
Out of roughly 1500 followers I had 3 people give me feedback. One actually blocked me, which is fine because that's one of the great things about being in a social network. You don't like what you see you can block posts or even quit following someone altogether.
Another one appreciated what I was sharing and +1ed one of the links I was sharing.
Then I had a person who left me a comment telling me exactly what they didn't like about what I was doing and that they were contemplating to stop following me. I don't blame them because it was a legitimate complaint. I explained to them that I was doing an experiment and I appreciated the feedback, and I apologized for any inconvenience.
What this taught me was that what I was doing was working, only I was doing it incorrectly, as I got carried away with the excitement with what I was trying to accomplish in the first place (getting free traffic to my links) so I can see how it would piss people off.
With that being said I now can see how to make this work without pissing everyone off.
So here's what I was doing...
I love using Google Reader to read my RSS feeds. One of the cool features of Google Reader is that when you are reading posts, you can add tags or labels, "star it" as a favorite, and you can share what you are reading via the Google+ share button.
That's what I did incorrectly and I had no intention of pissing people off. In my experimental stupor, I was sharing posts which then get posted to the Google+ stream. So what ended up happening was I was sharing these links in succession. Not good. I can really see how that would turn people off I know I don't like seeing link after link seconds apart from the same person.
So the moral of the story is.... DON'T DO THAT!
If you have links you want to share, I would highly recommend that you share them in a timely manner and not one right after the other or yes you are going to piss some people off.
Now on with the experiment and how you can use it to get free traffic too, only you will be able to do it the right way now. :-)
Here are the sites you will be using for free to do this.
Feedage HTML 2 RSS Conversion Tool
First you'll need to register an account with them.
The Feedage HTML2RSS conversion tool will create an RSS 2.0 Feed from any website. Simply Enter the URL to the webpage you want to convert and hit submit. Next go to Google Reader.
Google Reader
Once you've created your RSS feed login to Google Reader and then subscribe to the RSS feed you just created by adding the link provided to you from Feedage. You should be able to see posts to your link that you can now share with your circle of friends and followers.
Check out the posts you want to submit, NOT ONE RIGHT AFTER THE OTHER though, and add tags or labels in Google Readers case, and star it as a favorite. This accomplishes Three things.
One, the link you want to share will show up in the label stream, to whatever particular label you chose to others searching for the same term.
Two, other Google Readers that are following you will see your favorite links(starred).
And Three, your links will be indexed by Google!
Now it's time to use the Google+ share button, again NOT ONE RIGHT AFTER THE OTHER!
Find the posts you want to share and simply click on the G+ share button. When the screen pops up you can add a comment along with your link or not, either way it will work.
However, just FYI if you are posting a comment along with your link I recommend that you include hashtags(#) on your keywords within your comment post.
Example: #build #business #2012
What that does is, it creates a clickable link to that particular keyword, which will show your post in the "Trends" stream of all the people using the same hashtags or keywords. In other words more eyeballs to see your links.
That's it, now people will see your links in the Google+ stream and if you do it correctly NOT ONE RIGHT AFTER THE OTHER, people won't get mad at you and or maybe block or unfollow you and you'll get free traffic to your links.
One more IMPORTANT thing I should point out. If you do abuse this you could possibly risk having your account terminated by Google.
Right now it is still a work in progress, while I am seeing clicks to my links, I see the huge potential this has for marketers who are willing to put in a bit of efforts into their marketing strategies.
Just be courteous and DON'T ABUSE IT!
I'm not sure how this will work in other Feed Reader sites but I will be looking into it and keep you updated.
To Your Success,
Chad Flick
posted by Chad at 12:10 PM
1 comments
