What is Google Plus Hangouts? Well, if you have been a faithful Google product user, then you will remember Google’s first attempts at instant messaging and video chatting with Google + Messenger and Google Talk. Today, Google has outdone themselves again with a more seamless system called Google + Hangouts. This system combines instant messaging, video chatting and the ability for live worldwide broadcasting all in one.

How can G+ Hangouts help my business grow?

As we all know, content is king, but so is social media when it comes to small businesses trying to market themselves and engage their target audiences. However, social media posts from all of the hottest platforms available today such as Facebook and Twitter, pales in comparison to having the ability to see your audience in real time; see them blink, change their posture or watch their facial expressions when you enlighten them with something they had never thought of before. This is called human media. Human media is social media’s love-child and allows a small business owner to use the technology of videos to engage their target audience and build a much closer relationship with this group far more than any social media post could do on its own.

How do you get started?

Getting started has never been easier. If you are ready to learn how to create videos, the first thing you need to do is have a Google Account. Your Gmail account will work just fine. You can either conduct a hangout from your personal account or Business G+ page. Setting this page up is going to be very similar in nature to the way you setup your Facebook page years ago. Once this account is set up, on the left side of your new G+ page, you will hover over the “location” icon in the top left corner, which will then show you a hidden drop-down menu. There, you will see and click the icon for Hangouts.

Next, click + New Hangout, the next prompt will be a view of your Gmail contacts and people from your Google Circle. You can start creating a “hangout” by marking the names of the people you’d like to invite to the Hangout. You can also search for people who are not in your Gmail contact list. Next, click the “start a video Hangout” and you just created a do it yourself video conferencing session for up to 10 people at the exact same time inside of a Hangout.

Business you can conduct on G+ Hangouts:

  • Lectures
  • Self-help videos
  • Seminars
  • Orientations
  • Share YouTube videos
  • Work in real time on time sensitive documents
  • And more!

Ready to broadcast your Hangout?

So is 15 people video conferencing not enough for a particular session? No problem at all. Google Plus has another feather they call Hangouts on Air. To access this cool tool, just hover your mouse over the location icon again in the top left corner of your G+ Page. You will see Hangouts again on the same sidebar as before.

Once you find Hangouts, select it, and you will be taken to the Hangouts page where you will see many concurrent live Hangouts on Air videos. If you’d like to pop inside of one of them for a look, listen and feel, just simply select one. If you are ready to start your very own live Hangouts session, click the blue icon title “start a hangout on air.” There will be some fields you must complete to get the party started. After you are done with the prompts, there will be two more. One will ask you if you’d like to make your video public, or it gives you the option to hand select invitees.

The last step will be an icon of a share button. Hit that, and you are live with your conference. Lastly, Hangouts will quickly ask you if you’d like to create a YouTube link, after you create this link, you can put the live link anywhere or do anything you want with it. You could put this live link on your website with a start time, you could even email the live link to as many people as you desired and to anywhere in the world… Oh, did we mention all this is completely FREE?…

Here are some recent videos we have done to help individuals and small business owners utilize Google + Hangouts to have fun with or grow their businesses, all while creating a deeper connection to their target audience.

Ben Theis
Owner/Director, Skol Marketing
www.SkolMarketing.com
612.787.SKOL (7565)
btheis@skolmarketing.com