Google Signals- Is The End Coming Soon for Google +?

Google Signals- Is the End Coming Soon for Google +? 

There have been some interesting updates by Google lately as related to their huge push to really get Google + to be a social network and compete in the networking space. 

I actually really like Google +. I love the communities that you can build and for many ideas and forums, it is perfect. However, for the majority of people Google + just did not offer anything big enough to have them either add Google + to their social networking tasks or to engage on the platform. 

Facebook just does not offer the same kinds of communities that Google + does. For instance, I love San Francisco. I used to live in San Francisco. So when I go to San Francisco I naturally take a lot of photos of my favorite places there, etc. To keep my heart in San Francisco one of the things I did was to start a community on Google + called San Francisco. I post my photos there but also people from San Francisco join the community and add their photos and conversation. I love that. 

On the other hand, for buyers and sellers here in South Florida- Google + is just not being used by those consumers. Most of our networking is peer to peer inside of the real estate communities. Referrals are great too! 

In 2012 Google made a really big push for you to have a Google + account when you signed up for YouTube, Adwords, etc. It looked like it was forced, but actually it was very difficult to find a way to skip that step. 

This no longer is the case. There was no big announcement about it. It just happened. Now you don't need to have a Google + account. Without being so “in your face” with the signups, new users won't be joining as frequently and that is one of the silent signals that Google + is going down. 

In April the person at Google who handled Google + ( Vic Gundotra) announced he was leaving Google. Did he see the writing on the wall? 

Of course we all remember how this past June, Google killed authorship and snippets including author photos and circle counts. I have my own opinion about why this happened but that would be another post. Most people believe that this is also a silent signal that the end of Google + is going to be coming down the pipeline. 

A very important component to Google + is  “Hangouts”. This was the one part of the platform that differentiated itself from other social networks. Now Google Hangouts is available as an app even if you do not have a Google + account. That is another silent signal. 

There is talk in the tech world that Google is planning to open up a photo service called Google + Photos where Google is not going to require you to have a Google + account in order to use this product. 

So they have moved their hangouts out of the Google + only arena and looks as if the photos will also go that way. Without those 2 main pieces there is nothing much left for regular users that would make them stay or open up a Google + account. Without new members opening up new accounts- the social piece of Google + will not be able to survive. 

Google has been getting rid of local biz six packs which is a good thing because for real estate related sites, the local agents traffic went up when that happened, not down. But is that another silent signal? It seems like a lot of work going to waste especially after Google just recently integrated your google local pages into Google+. 

It seems by looking at this information that Google is quietly taking apart Google + piece by piece. 

Of course you should never have all of your eggs in one basket but if they are all in the Google + basket, I suggest strongly that you start taking your content out and getting a plan B for your eggs going. 

There are some quite awesome SEO benefits to being on Google +. You can even build out nice content pages using #hashtags and long tail keywords and then link to those pages. Every post you write on Google + has its own URL that you can market. That helps to get your content to show up oin the SERPS. Our Google + pages still show up in the SERPS. What will happen to those SERPS only time will tell. 

It is recommended that you begin to shift your focus to other networks and to build your own networks on your own websites. Most of us do not get the kind of traffic one would need to make it this an efficient strategy. 

My advice is to continue to use Google + while it is still around however, don't keep all your efforts only there. Make sure you have a social media strategy for all of the social networks as well as your own websites. 

When rumors and speculation happens like this a lot of marketers start jumping ship. Let them. If more of your competitors leave Google + the more you can capitalize on any traffic you can create by understanding how to use this to your SEO advantage.

Get your Free SEO Guide here: http://SEOFieldGuide.net 

Replay of Realbird Webinar with Katerina Gasset

Here is the replay of the Realbird webinar when I was the guest speaker last week: 

“How to Fly Under the Radar of the big ZTR's” 

If you registered for the webinar you were sent an email from Gabe at Realbird with a link to the recording.

In case you did not register or could not make it to the live webinar, the webinar was recorded.

It is a little over an hour long- you can start it and stop the recording at different sections in case you don't have time to take notes for the entire hour.  

Please leave a comment if you liked the video on the YouTube video comment section, Thanks!

Replay of Realbird Webinar with Katerina Gasset

Here is the replay of the Realbird webinar when I was the guest speaker last week:

“How to Fly Under the Radar of the big ZTR's”

If you registered for the webinar you were sent an email from Gabe at Realbird with a link to the recording.

In case you did not register or could not make it to the live webinar, the webinar was recorded.

It is a little over an hour long- you can start it and stop the recording at different sections in case you don't have time to take notes for the entire hour.

Please leave a comment if you liked the video on the YouTube video comment section, Thanks!

Reminder: Wednesday – I will be the Guest Speaker on Realbird- Free- Get Registered Today

Reminder: Wednesday – I will be the Guest Speaker on Realbird. This is a FREE webinar! 

I will be sharing with you the latest in how to fly under the radar of the big ZTR's. 

You will also learn the 9 best tips we use for SEO dominating. 

And we will be going over the touchpoints and reaching out through your verticals. 

Lots of great stuff to learn and apply to your blogs and websites and social media!! 

We have nearly 400 registered for the webinar so far. 

I hope to see you there! 

Go here to register: http://goo.gl/ex2g6U

The Best Apple Parody Goes To IKEA!

What fun to write a post about two of my favorite companies on the planet! 

If you are a listing agent, studying marketing should be on your list of business education tasks to do. 

Studying the best in marketing helps you refine your own listing marketing and branding of your company. 

The company that I love to study is Apple. Before we changed over to all Apple computers – Macs, iPhones, iPads… we could not really relate to the fans that seemed so over the top in their love of anything Apple. 

The minute we opened the box to our first big 27 inch Mac desktop computer we were not just hooked, but became fanatical fans as well. Now we relate! 

Apple commercials are the best designed messages and people and companies around the world continually copy the look and feel of the Apple website, store and commercials. Studying Apple messaging is a must for any serious marketer. 

One of the fun things that comes from this is the Apple commercial parodies from other companies. There are some great ones out there. 

This year, with the new Apple iPhone6 being announced to the new i08 update to the Yosemite OS, companies are jumping at the chance to grab a piece of the messaging moment and bring it to their own audiences. 

Thumbs up to my another one of our favorite companies- IKEA, who we choose as the winner of the Apple parody this year! 

IKEA takes their new 2015 paper catalog and creates a hilarious commercial parody that will have you laughing for a while!

Oh, I should also mention that this IKEA video has over 10,000,000 views!!!! That just goes to show how much of a hit not just this commercial is but also goes back to the amazing success marketing of Apple. 

Here is the commercial: 

Katerina Gasset- Guest Speaker- RealBird Webinar September 17- 2014

I will be the guest speaker for Realbird on Wednesday September 17-2014 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. 

This is a FREE webinar and you do not need to be a member of Realbird ( although I would highly recommend you become a member) in order to join us on the webinar. 

On this webinar I will be discussing and training you onRealbird member or not? You are welcome to join in this free Realbird training Katerina Gasset. We'll show you how Real Estate SEO is all done! that you must be utilizing today to stay ahead of your competition. 

I will be sharing with you the tools we use to fly under the radar of the big ZTRs of the real estate industry so that you can still get your piece of the pie in listing leads. 

Get your own listing leads. You can create your dominance in your corner of the world where your prospective sellers are looking to find the best real estate agent to list their property. 

The “Dark Matter” of SEO will be uncovered. This is all the invisible pieces and tasks that you do that is not visible on the outside of your website and blogs. 

It is always better to be #10 on page 1 than #1 on page 2 of the organic SERPS. 

This SEO and marketing for real estate training is FREE so don't miss out! 

I will alway be giving you access to my SEO Field Guide and show you how we get it all done! If you are a busy agent then you want to be on this training. As busy agents you can not possibly do all the SEO steps and content creation by yourself. 

RealBird (http://www.realbird.com) is a leading provider of Internet marketing tools for

real estate professionals based in the Silicon Valley. The RealBird toolset includes listing and agent marketing and

lead generation tools uniquely tailored to the needs of the residential and commercial real estate industry. The

founders of RealBird were pioneers in introducing Internet and mobile marketing to the real estate industry.

To register please click here: 

How to Dominate Online for Real Estate Agents

“How to Dominate Online flying under the radar of the Big ZTRs of the Real Estate Industry. Discover the tools and touchpoints you need to utilize today to stay ahead of your competition! How would you like sellers calling you instead of you cold calling them? Don't miss this training! “

Point2 is Sold to Move.Inc

Point2 Listing Syndication services ( which is a Canadian company Ltd) is sold to Move.Inc. 

2014 seems to be the year of selling companies in the tech sector of real estate. 

Point2 announced this morning that they sold their Point2 Syndication services to Move.Inc. 

Point2 has syndication relationships with 112 MLSs in the U.S. with over 900,000 listings. 

“The combined network will remove duplication of listings currently served by both systems, and will now provide information from more than 600 data sources, and distribute approximately three million listings nationwide, or close to 85 percent of residential listings in the country.  “

Move.Inc is the parent company of ListHub. Move.Inc bought ListHub in 2010. 

Move.Inc bought TigerLeads in 2012. 

Point2 just signed a 10 year lease in a new building. 

Move.Inc operates Realtor.com. 

According to Luke Glass who is the executive vice president of industry platforms for Move: 

“This is a critical step toward our vision of a single industry platform to manage listing, agent, lead and other analytics information in a single platform,  which is an important component for the largest brokerages and franchises that span multiple MLS markets,” said Luke Glass, executive vice president of industry platforms for Move. “Once the transition is completed, these listings will be protected under ListHub's stringent terms that guide the responsible and fair exchange of value between content owners and publishers, while brokers will have a single point of control through their dashboard. This model offers significant advantages to the industry in improved online listing accuracy, a single platform for MLSs and their largest brokerages and franchise members, and streamlined service for the publishers who strive to serve the industry through marketing websites and other software solutions.”