Good Day Google+ (Episode 5 - part 2)

video today, Jenny.

Oh, did you? I had a lot of fun making that, actually. That looked hilarious.

I love it.

Hey guys, we're back. Sorry about that. Give us a couple minutes to get back in sync here, and Denise to come in, and we'll start talking all over again. So guys, go ahead.

I like Mark Bang's comment. He says, Martin, did you trip over the extension cord and unplug Google?

There you go.

Again, it has happened. I was interviewing, um, Mari Smith one time, and I dropped out, which wasn't ideal.

I did two weeks ago. Nice— we had a nice interview with Jessica Northey the other night.

That's great.

Yeah, that was good.

She's something. I like her. Another Texan.

Woo!

Is she Texan?

No, she's Arizona. I take it back.

She's close. It's close.

Ah, it's in the same neighborhood. No, no, no, exactly.

It's not Texas at all. Jessica's not Texas.

I think I could probably— Tucson!

Tucson?

See, you're being educated. She did educate us about Tucson.

I do have the comment tracker back on too if you guys want to hook that up or whatever.

Going back whilst we wait for Denise, I think that the point about it was because I mentioned brand but actually for individuals the opportunity really for individuals to get good search results is like never before 'cause if you build authority and people are engaging around your content. And without going into the, it's this followed by this followed by this, because it's frequently not that. It's just, is this the best answer for somebody to get it in search? And from a personalized search point of view, it's very easy to be influencing the content that people are seeing within your network. But also those logged-out results, the incognito search results, it's a phenomenal opportunity. I play, and I enjoy just seeing and finding out and doing tests and trying to figure out what works. But ultimately what works is people enjoying and engaging around what you do. And I think for anybody— it's interesting with everybody's skill set, we probably have certain things that we could focus on and go into a real niche interest. But because our audiences or the people that we relate to and are connecting with because they go, hey, I like you, so I'm going to now listen to what you've got to say about that subject. You also find that you start to get a bit more authority in that subject. So you can take a passion and turn it into something which starts to be kindled. I mean, how else can you do that? I don't know. I mean, for me, I wouldn't know how to do that with Twitter, and certainly not now, and I certainly wouldn't know how to do it with Facebook. But the opportunity, even though Google+ is over 2 years old, it's still new. Also, it's constant learning. I don't know about you guys, but every day— and I think that's one of the things, you have to have the mentality that you're willing to learn. If you're not, then it's best to outsource it to a third party and just let them run with it and let them run the page. There is a lot to learn, but it's learnable. Once you've got it, you can practice it. There's a lot of help around as well, isn't there?

A lot of support. Ronnie Benser is a great one for that too. That's who I access a lot. Ronnie's fantastic. That's who helped me get my shows going, to be quite honest. I was very lost. He's a great bridge for the large gap that can deal with a lot of the changes.

I think Ronnie's helped us all out at one time or another, the Hangout Helper there. He's also got his new community too for people that really want to dive into it more. He's got the Hangout Master community.

I'm in that too.

Yeah, I think so.

Oh, hey, Denise is too.

Jenny, you should be in there, look at that, you missed it.

I know, I need to. I feel left out, I'm being quiet over here, I'm like, I need to get in.

But Jenny, out of all of us, you've been the one doing YouTube the longest.

Right.

Talk a little bit about what you do on YouTube for us.

I started, I never owned a video camera before September 2010, but I decided, I watched several of the shows on YouTube, I picked up a video camera that is, you know, it wasn't expensive, it was maybe like $700, got my little lighting set, and I started cooking recipes. I've watched Food Network and networks like that, and I dreamed of becoming the next Food Network star. I mean, that was, so my, and I knew I couldn't do that, you know, I'm not one of those types that are, I'm not gonna, you know, go to Hollywood or which I did end up going to Hollywood, but I wasn't that type. So I'm like, how is my way to become this personality? And so I'm like, it's YouTube, because I mean, if they can do it, I can do it. And I saw all these people cooking on YouTube. And so I just picked up the camera, started making brownies, and then it evolved into— it was holiday time, it was just around the corner from Halloween. I love costumes. With a passion. So I started, I'm like, you know what, no one really does, I mean everyone does it during the holidays, but no one really wears costumes and makes these recipes and turns it into a mini movie. So it was kind of this evolution and it turned into iloveflavor.com. So I make very fun, flavorful video recipes with plots and costumes and silliness, but they're really good recipes. I mean, and it's It's fun because I taught myself how to do animation. I'm a finance major, I'm not a graphic design artist, but I've learned how to do that. And it's, you know, in learning how to use Final Cut Pro and how to use those things and connecting with people on a level that I never knew you could even do. I mean, it's— this dream started as, you know, being a star, and it actually became just more of like a passion. I got to meet people from around the world. I flew up to New York, met my friends from YouTube, and I went to California and walked on the red carpet because I got nominated for a video I did. It's right alongside the Food Network people, so it's been crazy. And I've taken a short break from YouTube just because now I'm doing the social media strategy stuff I'm doing for other people, which is awesome to make their dreams come true now. So now I'm going to do both. So it's—

I love it.

It's, you know, video is, it's terrifying if you've never turned on a video camera. I am complete, I'm a different person when I'm on the camera. Like I'm usually very shy, but whenever I turn on that camera, you can turn into a character, you can be whoever you want to be, whether that's a business voice or, you know, a candy corn witch, like, or my favorite character is I Dream of Jeannie, Jenny the Genie, so it's fun. I mean, you can do whatever you want to. You don't have to be a genie or make food to do it, but just as long as you have a passion, YouTube is an excellent way to voice that because it's not only a visual, but you can talk and interact with your fans or people all over the world. So I love YouTube.

It's great.

So it's, you know, there's, you always get those comments, um, Thankfully, I was an internal auditor before, so I had a really thick skin. But if you can do that and not quit, you can be as successful and become whoever you want to on YouTube and the internet. So if I can do it, anyone can do it. That's for sure.

I love it.

I've got to say, Jenny, I did mention this on the Hangout the other night. I've been building a list of comments that I get on YouTube. From people who are YouTubers. And they usually go on the lines of, damn you, Google+, what are you doing to YouTube, man? And I put it on my Google+ videos. And I put, Google owns YouTube? And they go, no, man. And I collect it. I'm taking screenshots, and I'm putting them into— I'm going to do a presentation one day. Because honestly, I go to my mail, and I probably get that about 1 in 5 comments. I'm thinking, you're mean, you're just mean. You don't need to put this on a video.

It's crazy, and I must say the best thing that even I tell clients that are terrified to get on social media, it's— because I've gotten letters telling me how horrible I am, I've gotten comments that just are just ridiculous, you know, whether it's personal or, you know, using the platform like Google+ or YouTube. It's just crazy. But once you respond to them, and after a while, after you start making the videos and you start having a presence, or even if you respond in general, it's amazing. If I respond immediately, and usually you need to respond within— the audience now online has come to the point that they expect you to reply within 60 minutes, unless it's like at 2 o'clock in the morning. You're too pissed off or had a glass of wine, you probably should wait. Whenever you respond to that, it's amazing how many comments back I've received saying, oh, you know, I'm sorry, I just had a really bad day, you know, I really love your show, or they attack something that I did and I said, oh, you know, I really like that, I'm really passionate about that, they're like, oh, well, yeah, no, that's great, but no, I really love your show, and da da da, and it came off as a really, it was written very poorly and it was written, you know, attacking me, but I didn't realize that they were a really big fan and they didn't mean it that way, or they were just having a bad day. So I try to— and that's part of this— I spent, whenever I started YouTube, I spent 14 hours a day learning everything I could, which Google+ was an excellent tool too, because I connect with other people in a new way and actually talk it out face-to-face in Hangouts, because I had no idea what I was doing. But it's spending the time and interacting with the people in the community. That's, that's how I build my fan base. And it's, it's, I'm not this really special person that has thousands of followers and millions of views. I mean, I do have that, but it's, I'm a normal person. I want to talk with people. I'm not, I'm not, you know, I have a humble side. And every, whether or not you're a business or individual or anybody online, you have to take just, you have to take more time to interact with the comments and your fans follow other people, get into other communities and other circles because that will make you grow, or you'll just look like a selfish snob that's all about your stuff, and your content won't get any better. You can't grow unless you connect with other people and get those comments. So those comments actually made my— because I'll look at my past videos and be like, oh my God. I've taken some of them down. But you learn and you grow as a person and a business. If you just take the time to interact with your fans and those comments. So it's been a building process, and you'll be invincible at the end of the day if you can just get through that first year. At least that's how it was for me. So it was very testing, but fun, fun at the same time.

I've been trying to get more of the food bloggers on to just do Hangouts, and they're resistant for the same reason. They just don't want to get in front of the camera. They're afraid, or when you tell them things, they don't listen, and then they get on, and it's a bad experience. Or their connection doesn't work, or their lighting's bad, or their microphone. It's like all the things you warn them about ahead of time, and then when time comes to go on, they don't look as good as they thought they would or come out as good. So pay attention when we tell you something. It's for a reason. It's not because we like to hear ourselves talk, although most of us probably do.

I've had that experience too. I've had people come on and no headphones and loud coffee shop and you know, you just kind of— we were just saying that on the show before this because I had Sam Stormborn Normandy, who I always want to call Sam Stormin' Normandy because that's just how his name looks to me when I see it. But he'd never come on Hangouts as well and he really got out of his comfort zone to come on this. I was pretty excited. He did build a very large lower third that he said felt like a little bit of a I said it's like, instead of standing in front of a stage, like standing in front of a podium. So he felt like that gave him a little bit of block. But I think it is, once you kind of get over that, I see the beginning, some of my beginning shows, Jenny, and it's a hot mess. But I always kind of celebrate that mine are hot mess. So it gives a little bit of forgiveness on it. But I have to do a lot of prep though for it, for my guests and everything. It's worth it though. I haven't had any crazy comments yet, but I'm sure that's coming. And it sounds like you handled it with aplomb and not reactionary, because that's kind of how I get, like, what the— yeah, I just have to calm down.

It's always best not to comment at that moment. It always works out that it's better just to go walk around the block, come back and go, how do I use this in a way which helps us both?

I've seen you do that a lot, Martin, with some people. I've seen some things kind of fly out, and you definitely handle it with grace as well. So Yeah, especially if it is late night and you have had the wine, you definitely don't want to comment.

It's also using humor, and I think that's the thing. I've done that from the start. It's allowing it to be play, because often people just want to be heard, and they may not have thought that that was how you're going to experience that thing. And I've got to say, YouTube's different to Google+. YouTube, the culture is different on threads. So Jenny, you've gone through something we probably haven't. On Google+, I think that just being patient sometimes and going, OK, how do I just respond in a way which I can walk away from and go, that was a fair response. I'm OK with that. As opposed to going, darn it, I'm going to have to go back and edit it because I was mean, or whatever. And it's somehow getting into the practice. Because you don't have to hurry. You don't have to— rather, I always have this hurry and rush. You don't have to rush it. You've got time. Take the next 30 seconds and see if you can be a little bit more reasonable in the response. But it's funny. Sometimes you get it wrong. And yesterday, I actually went back and went, no, I could have done that better. And I did go back and edit, hopefully before the person got the comment. And it wasn't bad. It's just I could learn. I saw actually what you're saying has got good intent, and I could learn from it and listen, as opposed to me going, you're wrong, I'm right, whatever.

Well, I think it's important to acknowledge that people have given you feedback, even if it's mean or unjustified. But I also think it's important to take a stand also for what you believe and what you've said. If you feel that it's right and it's right for you, I think that's important not to capitulate to people. I know none of you are saying that, but to start that discussion and say, "I appreciate what you're saying and that's right for you, but it may not be right for me or my business." I got something the other day, it was a very, very general, like, "Everybody does this, why didn't you?" and "You should be doing this." I was like, "Well, I've been in business for 16 years working on the web. I really appreciate your point of view, but that's not how it works for me." I know this person isn't very sophisticated on the web. I said, "That's a good point, and this is the way I do it. Everybody needs to do business the way it works for them." I wasn't going to say, oh yeah, you're right, you're right, I should have done it a different way. And you know, there are times that I think people feel that they need to do that if somebody's criticizing them, and I think it's important to take a stand for what you believe in and what you know is right for you and explain that to people as well.

I think you put something on your face.

I think somebody was making a comment on a cat GIF. I think it wasn't necessarily business, because sometimes you put content out and people go, No, I don't think that that's whatever it might be, and it's a very different thing. I agree totally with you, is that if you believe it, stand up for it.

Yeah, yeah.

I think you just posted something on your wall about that today, right, Denise?

Yesterday, yeah.

Yesterday. And I, I, uh, so see, I was stalking you a little bit, checking out your shiny, and I think I liked it. I do know Mercury's in retrograde this week, so that always makes communication wonky.

Hold on a second, hold on. I had just— you were talking about being an Aquarian the other night. Chef Dennis, come on. What? We're getting into star sign stuff here now. Hey, wherever it goes, I'm a Virgo.

Oh dear.

I don't want to be talking about Mercury going into retrograde.

I wanted to see where that was going.

Oh, go on then.

So that means it slows communication down. I actually know this. Go on.

I know it's true. It's signing contracts. It's kind of outside that little crystal rubbing arena. You got to give it a little bit of a nod. Communication is wonky during that period. If you kind of know it before, and I could see it on social media this weekend. I saw a ton of misunderstandings and stuff like Jenny, like you're talking about, just people like, "Oh man, I'm sorry. I was tired or cranky or whatever." I think it's part of that. Thanks for giving me a chance to jump in on that, Martin, because I know it sounds It sounds kooky, but man, when you pay attention to it, there's some validity to it. Denise, I saw that yesterday.

I was like, whoa.

I think a couple people need to hear that. I think it's okay to stand up for what you believe in and just say, hey, no, thanks for your opinion, but I don't agree with that. It's okay. You don't have to. You don't have to kowtow.

I think that it's important to acknowledge people when they do— have a different opinion and say, great, let's agree to disagree.

I agree it might be Mercury in retrograde.

Thank you, Martin. I know, it does sound like a chick thing, doesn't it?

It is.

Along the way, I have actually been exposed to it enough times to kind of go, Yeah, it could be. But there is also the arising of noticing what happened. When you go, oh, Mercury's in retrograde, let's now have a look at how communication fails. There is a little bit of that.

You have to be careful of it. You can't set yourself up for it. You do kind of just have to be aware of it. A lot of times what will happen is something will go crazy and you're like— it's something that will tell you, like, oh, okay, there seems to be a big pattern of that. And chicks are just plugged in. We're just plugged in, right, ladies? Absolutely.

Well, I'm a Cancerian, so I mean, it probably doesn't matter to me anyway.

Oh, me too.

I'm an Aries. I'm just stubborn.

Oh, that's— you know what? I didn't mean to take it down this path.

Well, everyone else— I'm a Leo, so I have to be center stage. It works for YouTube, so—

Right? That's why you got your show. Smart move, Jenny.

I love it. It kind of fits just right.

I don't even know what that means, Stephen Shannon, but I'll put it up on the screen anyway.

I'm an Aries on the cusp, Stephen, I'm with you, brother.

Okay, then.

It's when you're born close to the sign. Somebody else made a comment here about, I'll need to find it, about for women. Melanie Hall, sorry I haven't pulled up the comment tracker yet. I think the biggest hurdle for women on camera is we think about our hair and makeup and outfit. Am I right, ladies? I think the one thing I love is I don't have to worry about— yeah, right, I love your lip gloss. We don't have to worry about any of this from here up. That's right, Denise.

Unless you back up a little bit. Just keep on going.

Exactly. I've done shows in pajama pants, you know.

Yeah, I'm not wearing shoes and that's okay.

You know, one of the things that I once heard someone say about being on video, and this was quite a few years ago before I got comfortable being on video was that people want to see other people like them. You don't need to be a celebrity star. You don't need to look like whoever you admire. You can look like yourself and that's what people are attracted to and relate to. When people often say, "Oh, I look terrible on camera," it's like, "No, no, you look fine. You are who you are and that's what people want to see." They don't want to see a fake you. They want to see the real you.

And you know, I totally— it's funny because I've spent hours on makeup and costume and production and animation. It took me like weeks to do maybe this one video. And then I do a vlog that I have no makeup on. I look wretched, but I wanted to talk about food. I thought it was important. I just wanted to do a thing. The vlog got more views, more likes, more attraction, more connection than one— I mean, not all of them are like this, but it's amazing how that can get much more attention and positiveness than, you know, something that takes me forever to do and I'm totally, you know, hours of makeup and hair and everything like that. But yeah, I mean, it's— they want to see the real you, and it's hard. It was hard for me to do that because I am so— there's— if I don't feel good about myself that day, I'm not filming. I mean, it's just, it's just not gonna happen, which is— that's why I'm really good at helping other businesses be on camera than me, you know, getting myself on camera sometimes. But it's— you just really have to— if you could just get past the camera and just know that they're just like you and that you're just talking to them and not being the a character all the time, it's very rewarding. It's just really hard. And it's just, for me, it was a baby step process. And it's still hard for me to do that. So that's why I like Hangouts, because I'm actually acting how I really am. There's no script. So it's really good for me. And I had to— whenever I did a cooking show with a Hangout and I put it on YouTube, that was fun. So that was— and doing that more and more has made me a better person on camera. And even edited, so I can have very high-quality content as well. But it's kind of funny how that, just like you said, you know, you don't have to be, you know, all polished. You just can be just normal you, and it's— that's perfectly fine.

I subscribe to that.

Yeah, haha.

It's really leading into what Google's saying all along about real people. They want real people to connect with real people. It's part of their mantra there with authorship and with using yourself. I tell bloggers that all the time, put your picture up there. Don't be afraid of showing yourself. Don't be afraid of putting your name up there. People want to connect with someone that's just like them. They would rather get a recipe from you and they know they can trust you than go to some— just a logo. It's about connecting with people and creating relationships. I think Google+ has really taught us more about that and enabled us to create these relationships. And to meet people.

I've made more relationships on Google+ that are super authentic. I've had connections now with Italy, Canada, Panama, and these are people that I jump on this quick little Hangout with. It's been awesome. I've never had that kind of instant interaction. My boyfriend will be like, who are you on with now? I'm like, I'm talking to Panama.

It's great.

Randy Hilarasky and his wife Annabelle, shout out to them. It's just there's that extra little thing.

Sorry, I had to shut the door because everybody was talking.

Talking, speaking of hot mess and things going wrong. I had to go shut the little office door. It's been really fun to have that pretty quick connection. Even Sam getting on, we jumped on a chat this week and I feel like I know him because I've seen all of his posts, super authentic, very endearing, love that. Then get to know him and it's like, "I know you," when you finally get on a Hangout together. Whether it's a Hangout on Air or just doing your Hangouts. It's a pretty neat concept.

It really cuts everything down to the basics when you meet them in person too because now you already know them. There's no feeling of, well, I don't really know you so how's it going to be if we meet in person? When you've been talking with someone online, when you have a Hangout with them, you're already friends. You don't have to get over that hump of I don't know you yet. I have found that to be just really fabulous benefit of connecting here.

Agreed. Can I just give a shout out to Christine DeGraaff? She says, "Fan is in the house." She's watching our show right now too. I had everybody come over that was on the show and watch this one. She's been on— oh yeah, they already knew about it. They heard you all were going to be on here so they were running over. I feel bad because I couldn't do a lot of comments on mine but I'm like, "I'm going over to Chef's house." It's the chef's show.

We do have a question here. I don't know if he's asking or funning with us, but Michael Mason wants to know authorship. What's that then, Dennis? Martin, you want to talk a little bit about authorship?

He is messing with you.

Is he messing with us?

He's messing with you, actually, but I'll pick it up.

Don't you worry.

So authorship is the process by which Google connects content that you create. Online. It could be on your website, or it could be on Google+, or it could be on somebody else's website. And when you add your profile picture as a headshot and you tag it— and to find out if you are tagged in it, you hover over and there should be a circle that comes around and that says your name. This is on your profile. And what that means is potentially author— well, actually, there's another step. Go to your— do we want to go into all the detail? No. Yes, go to your About section and make sure any websites you contribute to, you Add as a contributor to down at the bottom. And then on the websites that you do contribute at, like your own, make sure you do a link back to your Google+ profile. And the easiest way to do that is to put a Google+ badge there. Yeah, that— OK, that's enough, right? I could go further. And what it means is that your content, when it appears in search, potentially has got your little face next to it, which means that, again, potentially— I use lots of potentially these these days with it, because it doesn't necessarily— but it's most likely that you're going to get more people click on it because they relate to you. And they see you, and they go, oh, I like picture. I'm going to click. So it's a really good way of attaching your personality, yourself, to the content that you're creating on the web. There you go. I saved you there, Dennis.

Well, thank you. He just laughed on that and said—

I know.

I kind of thought he was fun and with us, but I figured Why not?

About Hangouts, can I just say one of the biggest things I found on Hangouts is it's about the connectivity or the connections. Absolutely, 100% agree. But also the opportunities, the people I've met, and the team that's been built, and people just jumping in and jumping out of Hangouts, and information flowing. And going back to the point about learning, I couldn't imagine doing some of the stuff that I do without having this technology. Because it would be by email or even on posts. Hangouts change everything, and they change the nature of relationship you have with people. And the opportunity for people of using this free tech to go, who in the world do I want to connect with? Do the things on Threads to start building the relationship. And if you have a genuine interest and they start to relate to your comments and they start to go, yeah, this person— and then bit by bit building the relationship to a point where maybe you interview them, or maybe they're happy just to hang out together. Suddenly you've connected, which I couldn't imagine how to do that on Twitter or Facebook.

You really nailed the progression. That's a perfect description of the progression. That's exactly how it usually works. You start interacting with them and then it gets a little bit more and then it progresses and progresses. They come on your show, you interview them, and then boom, you've got yourself a lifey.

I like that name. That's a good one.

A bestie.

Here we go, Mark Vang. Go to my back section, things always sound much more interesting when folks from the UK say them.

Si, Mark.

I don't know if that was a comment to bring up really.

Not just me, not just me.

Mark Vang. I think, let's move on. Bad Mark.

Between Mark Vang and the other guy, he's got, your buddy Michael Mason, he's got a lot of fun comments on here too. He said he thought it was a cooking show until he read the description. I read that.

It is, we're cooking up some fun.

Yes, between Chef, your page, and Jenny, your page, I feel informed and hungry all the time.

I know, it's horrible. I think, you know, food porn. And it's funny because everyone's like, you know, how do you, don't you get so fat, or how do you think, I'm like, well, I'm taking the pictures and then It's funny because I usually take everything that I put on Google+ except for if it's me in a costume or something really fancy, I use it with my iPhone so I'm making my friends stop, like they're not allowed to eat before I put it on Google+. They're like, okay, stop, Jenny is taking a picture. But then I'm so busy editing it and I'm doing my Pixlr Stitch app, which I can do on the go and put it on Google+, which is awesome, and tag myself in, do a review at the same time. So I'm doing all this, so they're eating the food, and I look up and I'm like, well, I guess I'll have a glass of wine. Yeah, it's fun, but I love food photography. It's just a different animal, but I drool over Chef Dennis Littley's pictures on a daily basis. Thank you. Waffles, that looks so good. So yeah, it's hard.

We have a lot of talent on Google+ and I keep trying to bring more food bloggers on and tell them to post the big pictures.

I love that. Yeah, and you've done it. I think you've really mastered a huge— you tapped into a really important thing, sharing other people's content builds your brand. No one should be afraid. I had a really hard time with this, I'm like, you know, I don't want to share too much because what about me, or am I sharing too much, or are my followers not going to like them, because I was worried, I didn't want them to get them attacked, I didn't know if that was going to be negative on me, but of course, you know, look at your Google+ page and you totally, you know, set a great example, you know, sharing great content and finding and connecting with other people is a way to, you know, find, not only find amazing food in our case, meet amazing people, but you'll expand in more ways than one. If you share their post or pieces of content, they're more likely to follow you and share yours. So it's a great way to connect on a very unselfish level. But if you're really like, you know, businesses that I help with, really trying to grow, that's really a big strategy that you really— everyone needs to do. No, you've mastered it beautifully, and it's just delicious. So I appreciate it.

Well, good content is good content, no matter whose it is.

That's right.

I'm just going to get back to Mark Vang. Mark, I think I said "about section," and I think you misheard it. So we're not going to bring that comment up, because I know you're still on it. I don't think I said what you think I said. So we'll leave that one. But you can go back to the video and see. Jim Shankle. If you're on the thread, you'll understand. If you miss this in the video, we're moving on from it, Mark.

We're moving on.

Jim's asked me a question, but I was going to fire it to you guys. Who has got a brand page? Who uses a brand page as opposed to— who's building their personal profile first and then looking at a brand page? I think this is a critical one. Myself and Jim talk about this. OK, Mia.

Personal.

And, well, personal.

I think I touched on it before. Oh, I'm sorry, Denise, go ahead.

You mentioned it before and you mentioned it.

I have the business page as well, but it just for some reason has dropped off for me. I've got to get back, so I'm going to out myself on that, that I'm not as good about the Mia Connect. So it's been an interesting thing because on Twitter and Facebook, that's really where I do a lot of the focus. I've branded myself as the Mia Connect on that and a lot of places, but for some reason on Google, I just kind of got started and I felt like that was a better way to do it because if there's this little logo and no face as opposed to the picture that I have, my one cool kick-ass picture that— sorry— that somebody took of me and I'm like, I'm going to use that for 30 years. You get that one good thing. But it has really just kind of grown for me on that way and that's how now they see Mia Voss. I think you nailed it, Martin, earlier. I think that's how I'm doing it. I do post over to there but I'm doing this personal brand that is kind of building the name. Jenny, you probably have the same thing. Dennis Littley as well. Chef, yeah, all of us. And then they kind of know us by that. And that's still going to build business. It's not like somebody doesn't want to do business with me because I don't have, you know, I've got my business name, you can go to my about section, not my aback section, my about section.

Aback section, Mark Bang.

Aback section. And see it. So that's my two cents.

Thank you very much.

Absolutely, I mean, I have a brand page, and food bloggers are again notorious for this. They want to push their brand, but I think that's because of what we've been taught on Facebook, where the brand is very important, and/or on Twitter, where the brand is very important. But here it's more personal, so I tell them, you know, if you're going to run a brand, if it's really that important to you, go ahead and do it, but I think you're going to gain a lot more ground using personal page because people are going to connect with you more on a personal level.

I agree. I moved over to my personal brand quite a few years ago because I just found that it was easier to connect with people that way. I always grab my business name on any network I'm on so nobody else will take it. It's also too much. I'm a one-person show and what am I going to be posting content on 6 16 different sites, personal and my brand, and it's easier to just direct people to one place where they can get me, and I think that's a lot easier. I am my brand, so that was a decision I made a few years ago.

I'll just add a bit, and I agree totally. What I've done is built up martinsherwinson.com to a point where the content, I kind of know where it is, and I can update it, and it's got posts on Hangouts and posts on Google+ posts and posts on the whole thing. And it's contained. It's there. But it took a lot of work to get to that point. But then because I wanted to build a team, Plus Your Business became— it had to go beyond me. If I'd included all the courses from Plus Your Business in martinshermington.com, it's very hard then to say, well, we're working as a bigger team and to be working with clients in that way. So it took probably— Well, I can tell you, beginning of September I launched that site, and I started on here start of March 2012. So it took 18 months of constant effort to get to a point where I felt that then it was appropriate to have that going, which is supported by a brand page. And the brand page does great. And I can focus on that and share a lot of people's stuff that I may not share via my profile because it may be a little bit too businessy and not necessarily Google+-y. And that gives a great audience for it over there. But it took time, and it's linked back into the communities, and they take time to nurture as well. So Jim, I think building the profile, understanding what you can do on here as well, getting to 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 followers, just simply because as a mark that you've been around a little bit and that you understand and you've got a little bit of engagement, not because the numbers matter ultimately, it's that you've simply arrived. And once you've done that, then you know a bit more, and then you can look and go, okay, If I was a brand, what would I be doing with a brand page that I wouldn't be doing with me? What am I putting over there? Why am I trying to move that bit of attention to that section? So for instance, with Plus Your Life, there's more quotes on the Plus Your Life brand page than there are that go through my profile. And people love the picture quotes. And I'm not going to share those every day. But people like them there, and that's great. And I have the content, and I make the content up. So that works, and that's a reason. Because I don't want it all the time on my profile. But that's taken time to build as well. So hopefully, Jim, between us, we've given an answer.

Well, I think the one thing is that you've already established yourself on Google+. And you've done all the legwork. You really worked hard at becoming Martin Shervington. It's a constant work in progress becoming Martin Shervington.

It's like indoor Malcolm H. Shervington.

Well, you know, when I introduced you, I was— I always introduce you as the real Prince of Wales. People have gotten to know you, so now when you want to do your Plus Your Business, you're trusted already. The problem with other people trying to do both is people are getting confused. They don't really know you as a profile yet, and now you're pushing your brand on them, and it confuses you and it confuses them.

Absolutely.

In my opinion, or for me anyway, there is no separation between me personal and me my business because my business is part of me. Once I finally really put that together for myself and embraced that, then I dropped a lot of the little wall there that was like, this is the professional Denise and this is the personal Denise. The professional people can't know the personal. Once I realized that it's really all me, that was so liberating and it's made a huge difference in the way I connect with people too. And so just like, what you see is what you get, you know.

Yes, preach it sister. That's a perfect way to say it.

I think that's where authorship comes in, it's an interesting thing as well. If you're authoring the content content from your brand page as well on your website. So if you share— if you have that on the website as a blog, for instance, if you are going to separate it, if you get to the point where you can separate out an aspect, you can still author that. You can still put your face to it. It doesn't have to be on a rel="publisher" tag, because that's for the pages which are like service pages or things to buy. If you're a blogger, then you can still be you and still people relate to you. But it isn't where to start. I think that's what— I feel that very strongly, and that's what you're saying, Chef Dennis. But later you can, and it can still be you, but not when you start.

But you got to get yourself to that point before you really—

absolutely—

before you want to do it. And then what happens at that point is sometimes you realize that you don't care as much about doing your brand, but you might want to start something new like you did with Plus Your Business, because then you grow and you see the bigger picture, so you want to go in another direction.

That was my experience too.

Martin, you mentioned something about the badge on your website was enough for authorship too. I did not know that.

No, you have to do a two-way link. So the badge, which indicates— well, it has the circles, and people can put you in circles as your profile. Having that linked to your profile and all linked up might be enough. But if you want to do the test, this is the main thing, and the profile, because I know somebody will snip it and go, you didn't mention about the make sure your profile pic and make tagging in it. So you've got to do all the things that we mentioned earlier in the video. But if you want to test it, Google rich snippets testing. Tool and see if the authorship is set up. Because the other way— and if you want to do another one, which is— because sometimes these things don't work for whatever reason. And another one is to go to Google Authorship. Just Google Google Authorship, and the first link that will come up, you can then click with your Google link, and you can put in your email for the website to which you've got an email. So it would be like info@ plus your business. And that potentially, when you verify it in the email that comes through, that's enough potentially to give the link there as well. But it's one of these things that it should be simple, it should be straightforward first time, but sometimes it isn't. And having these extra things— I mean, there is a full blog post with absolute instructions from myself and Mark Traphagen and Colin Carpenter on plusyourbusiness.com if people want to go through all of the details, how to set it up for authors on WordPress, because that's another route. So there's lots of options there, but yeah, the badge should do it if you've got the other things in place, is my understanding. That's what we found.

Maureen, we have a question here from Anna Lees. She was wondering if she could squeeze this question in. For companies, what would be the reason to create a brand page over a personal page? It seems like much of what links back is to the personal one.

If you are a in a business, like a very professional expertise specialist, like a doctor, a lawyer— I work with a lot of lawyers and doctors and certain things— and you don't want to necessarily be friends with your patients. You have huge laws and regulations and HIPAA requirements and everything like that, and you just— or you might have several doctors as a group, and you want to give out advice or messages or tips and build your brand on Google+, which is an excellent way of, you know, just like we said, going in the Google search, you know, being part of a new community, that's amazing. You want to protect yourself at the same time, especially you don't want to friend, you know, your patients or maybe, you know, you're dealing with a certain case, you want to protect yourself at the same time. So that, in that case, or even any other brand, I mean, it's sometimes it's better to showcase your brand because sometimes you have all of these different people that come together and make something amazing and you want to showcase that to the world. They might not want to be a web personality, they might not have all these things going on, so you want to come together and build a brand and showcase all of that, like, you know, just like a sports team does, like the Houston Texans. They always put out cool things, or Lululemon, or tons of cool brands. I don't know if they're on Google+, but they do a lot of cool things online. But they have a lot of things going on as a company, and if you have a lot of things, cool things that several people come together and make a company and put together a lot of cool things, then that's definitely something you want to feature, and you want to build that name online, not just one single person. So that's one way that you do really— I really push having a brand online and building that just to protect the clients, especially in those industries, just to avoid any headaches. And I don't want them to lose their license.

Right, anything regulated, that's right, they do have to be careful about it. And you're right, that is for more of the people that have this general, that is, it's— it's exactly that, a brand. We are, our names are our brand, so that is us, and it's kind of the personality of it as opposed to— yeah, you're right, I don't know if Lululemon is on it, but I'm sure they're probably, whatever they do, if they do it on Google+, it's going to be great. That's that same kind of thing where you can have this, everybody contributing to it, but it's under this umbrella, under the brand.

Right.

I think if you've got a physical location and you have a shop front or you have a need for local service and so on, then looking at the brand pages, looking at the appropriate brand of course, it's different. So I think the context that we're talking in is if you are a blogger in particular, or you're writing or producing content, and should you go for your profile or should you go for a page, or should you try and build up both at the same time? I think probably most of us would say it's easier if you go for your profile to start with and then make a decision after than trying to do— I think that's really what we're pretty all saying. But in this context, and I think Jenny, you're spot on, it's like there's a lot of reasons why you want them. I'm constantly working with clients on pages, but for us lot, I think we've all found that people relate to us best as us, as opposed to us as the brand of us.

Yeah, if you want to be a personality online, you need to kind of set yourself apart so you can do so many things. And I've gone so many directions, and I've become, you know, from where I started off with to now, like, if I put myself in a brand brand per se. I mean, yeah, like I started off as iloveflavor.com, but I'm a very different brand as a person when I started off with what I am today. So it would have locked me into a place that it's— I hate to be in a box, and it's helped me develop and grow and, you know, be a person and be, you know, a personality which I wanted to be. But yeah, if you want to do the brand, then it is good to have that. And as just like you said, the Google Local, that is key because whenever you're searching on Google, it's popping up on the, you know, your right-hand side and that's actually pushing it right under your website. The picture is right under your website which can be, you know, either a person's face which, you know, you're connecting with a person, that's, it's not, nothing wrong with having a person's face as the brand either because that way they can trust the main doctor or lawyer, whoever, but, you know, having that Google Local, having the location, having the correct location, verifying it, being able to check into that, have reviews, Google reviews, because part of my job is also for companies is managing the reputation. So now there's this whole setup where you can do reviews on Google Local and everything like that, and that pops up as a push-up. And now they rolled out a feature that now you can promote those ads online within AdWords or, you know, or whatever. So it's becoming very crucial to do the Google Local, Google+ Local, and Google+ now. So it's a brand it's building and protecting yourself at the same time.

Absolutely. Can I bring up a couple of things, Chef Dennis, just on the screen? Just be— only so that on the video that we've then got the links that we've mentioned, because they'll be on the event. That's the first one from Mark Vang. Thank you very much. The next one is the authorship One— oh, there we go— that Michael Mason's brought up here as well, and talking about the results you can get from in search by increasing things as well. I think those are the two. Thank you, folks. That's great. OK. Good. Great.

Excellent. And Michael just wanted to know what— since this was a cooking Hangout, when do we get the secret sauce? Well, Michael, the secret sauce is the link juice you get from Google. That's the secret sauce.

Gotcha.

Okay, here's something from Craig Flyfield. I'll put that up too.

Hi Craig, he was just on my show.

Yep, he was on, was it last week or the week before?

He was actually on mine just today, but he was on yours, yes, about 2 weeks ago, right?

Yeah. In terms of Google authorship, ideally you should use the most explicit option available, link in the head, link from your byline and on your author page. You don't want to rely on Google to get it right, they mess up all the time. Well, it's a big Google world out there, I think that's why. Alright, well guys, I think it's been a great show. Anyone else has anything they'd like to add? We're getting a little past that 2 o'clock mark, so we're gonna sign off, but I want to thank everyone for being there. Denise, thank you so much for coming today. Thank you.

Thank you for having me, for inviting me.

My pleasure. Jenny, so nice to see you again and to walk through this again.

Thank you so much. I had a great time.

Good. Martin, always a pleasure.

Thank you, good to see you.

Good to see you, too. And Mia, very nice getting to do this one-on-one finally and get together, and I look forward to being on your show in a couple weeks.

You as well. Thank you. Love your show. Thanks for having me on.

Oh, my pleasure. Well, guys, thank you so much for stopping by and bearing with our technical troubles with your Good Day Google+ Part 1 and Part 2 today since we did have an off-the-air event. We'll see you all next Friday. Have a great week.

Bye.