Google Places Changes | Google + Local - Google Plus For Local Businesses

I first was introduced to Fireman Mike about a year ago through Main Street Marketing Machines and have appreciated the content that he has provided. In this video he brings us up to date on the most recent changes that Google has made to Goolge +.

In case you hadn't heard, Google Places is on its way out and Google has begun migrating Google Places accounts to Google+ Accounts. There is a strong emphasis on reviews and local search so you are going to want to make sure that you claim your Google+ page. And, yes, in order to claim a Google+ page you need a gmail account, so set one up just for this purpose.

If you don't see it when you search you can add a page yourself. Be sure to add relevant information about your business and include key words in your descriptions. Mike's video gives you almost an hour of content so you can begin to optimize your Google+ Page for the best local search results.

You may wonder why bother, it's too much trouble. Google dominates search and they want to keep it that way. They are moving into local and mobile search to give consumers the top picks on the web. This means they are going to be using the information from your Google+ Page, including reviews, to determine if your website is going to show up when someone searches for a local business or service.

They are also treating mobile searches differently than desktop searches so if you don't have a mobile website, or at least a mobile optimized website, you may be missing the best customers you can find. They are on their phones, searching for a local restaurant or other service and have money they want to spend. Don't miss out. The future of your business may depend on knowing how and taking action.

Publish Your Own Online Magazine

You've probably seen them, those cool magazines that you can flip online. Ever wonder how they do that. We'll there are several ways to do this and they are not as hard as you may think.

Issuu has a website where you can upload a pdf and like magic you will have an online magazine. But word of warning, they now own your content and can do with it what they want.

Now there is a wordpress plug in called IssueM that you can add to your wordpress site and publish your own magazine with 'stunning' results.

The IssueM plug in creates archives of your publications and enables viewers to download a pdf version of the magazine. I think that this plug in can be a great resource for nonprofits organizations and help them deliver their newsletters to their followers in a readable format that they will want to share with their friends.

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Can Twitter Change a Life?

In 24 hours 1 tweet resulted in the collection of 150 pairs of shoes for the homeless.

PayPal - Delivering innovative payment services -

 PayPal, Videos | Mobile Money Live

MWC 2012: Delivering innovative payment services | PayPal, Videos | Mobile Money Live 

Click here to view: MWC 2012: Delivering innovative payment services - PayPal, Videos | Mobile Money Live

David Marcus, President of PayPal Mobile, presents at the 2012 GSMA Mobile World Congress, and 

reveals how mobile payments and mobile money technology is being adopted by customers and merchants.

Mobile is important, if you still had any doubts PayPal had $4billion in  payments last year with an increase from 8 million users in June 2011 to 17 million by the end of the year. Cyber Monday experienced a 500% growth from 2010 to 2011.

Mobile users are adapting to mobile technology and mcommerce faster than anyone in the industry predicted and these trends should continue to climb as mobile phone contracts rollover and consumers upgrade to smart phones.