Monday, July 22, 2013

New Learn with Google Summer Webinar Series

At Google, one of our goals is to help make the web work for you. Today we’re announcing our summer series of Learn with Google webinars, which will teach you how to use digital to build brand awareness and give you the tools you need to drive sales. Each of our sessions gives you deep-dive educational content, across a breadth of products and marketing objectives, in a format that’s convenient for you. Every webinar is led by Google product experts and includes time for audience Q&A. Sign up to start becoming a smarter digital marketer now.




Upcoming live webinars:

July
[Shopping] Google Shopping 101: Overview of Shopping & Product Listing Ads
[Search] Improving Your Search Campaigns with Remarketing Lists for Search Ads
[YouTube] Driving Direct Response with Video

August
[Shopping] Google Shopping 201: Product Listing Ad Optimization Essentials
[Shopping] Google Shopping 301: Advanced Optimization Tactics
[Search] Taking Advantage of New AdWords Features
[YouTube] Building your Business with YouTube Video Ads
[Social] Kick-Starting Social with Google+

September
[Display] Planning Display Campaigns with the New Display Planner in AdWords

Webinars are held Tuesdays through Thursdays at 10am Pacific/1pm Eastern.

Visit our webinar site to register for any of the live sessions and to access our large library of recorded content. You can also stay up-to-date on the schedule by adding our Learn with Google calendar to your own Google calendar to automatically see upcoming webinars.

Learn with Google is a program to help businesses succeed through winning moments that matter, enabling better decisions and constantly innovating. We hope that you’ll use these best practices and how-to’s to maximize the impact of digital and grow your business. We’re looking forward to seeing you at an upcoming session!

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Creating your next channel just got a lot easier

Cross-posted with the YouTube Partners & Creators Blog.

Previously, every channel you created needed to have its own Google account login. If you’re a creator that manages many channels, you might even have a spreadsheet to organize the various email addresses and passwords you use to log in to your channels.

We made a significant improvement to the multiple channel management experience recently when we launched the option to connect your existing channels with a Google+ page. Google+ page connected channels have enhanced channel management features that allow you to manage up to 50 channels with a single login, and multiple individuals can manage your channel with their own logins.

Now, when you sign up for a new channel you’ll have an option to create this new channel connected with a Google+ page. This will allow you to create new channels using a Google account that you already use to manage your other channels and Google+ pages. This is a significant simplification of the channel signup process, so we encourage you to take advantage of this when you’re creating new channels going forward.

Create a new channel connected to a new Google+ page

1.Sign in to a Google account that you use individually - maybe it’s a Google account you already use to manage other channels and Google+ pages, or it’s the Google account you use in the YouTube Content Manager.

2.Go to www.youtube.com/channel_switcher and click Create a new channel.



3.Provide a name for your new channel and Google+ page, and click Done to complete the signup process. Remember, channels connected with Google+ pages can have names that include spaces and punctuation if that’s what you want.

Create a new channel connected to an existing Google+ page

1.Sign in to a Google account that is the manager or owner of the Google+ page with which you want your new channel to be connected.

2.Go to www.youtube.com/channel_switcher and click the name and avatar of the Google+ page for which you want to create a new channel.



3.You’ll be asked to confirm you want to create a new channel for this page, so click OK to complete the signup process.

Additional tips for your new channel
  • You can add others as a manager of the new channel and page (instructions). Remember, we encourage everyone to use their own logins to manage channels, rather than using shared logins!
  • Your new channel URL will look something like the URL below, so if you’d like a custom URL that is easier to remember, follow these steps.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Ambient news: All the news most people want

Ambient news is proving a significant challenge to news organizations trying to serve readers on multiple digital platforms and maintain their print and broadcast news operations.

Contemporary technologies all around us are now delivering breaking news, sports scores, and market updates on electronic screens and displays in elevators, taxis and buses, bars and restaurants, on the sides of buildings, through smartphones, and via social media.

In years past, we all had to deliberately turn to newspapers or radio and television newscasts, or at least glance at headlines at news stands, to get a quick overview of major events. That era is past.

Today news is free and ubiquitous and, unfortunately, provides all the news that most people want. This is bad news for those trying to provide news commercially.

In the past, newspapers and newscasts filled their space and time with non-news features and information designed to attract audiences that wanted only a little news. Most newspapers, for example, rarely carried more than 20 percent hard news during the past 50 years and provided a heavy diet of sports, entertainment, lifestyle and other diversionary content. Today, light news readers who formerly bought papers for non-news articles find plenty of that information for free on television and the Internet and they are abandoning newspapers and news broadcasts.

Those who remain the audiences of newspapers and new broadcasts tend to be heavy news consumers, people who want significant amount of news and serious information. They value the kind of news reporting that provides social benefits. Unfortunately, they are getting less and less of that news as publishers, news producers, and editors continue pursuing the audiences that have left them and are satisfied by ambient news. In doing so, news executives are leaving their prime audiences of heavy news consumers increasingly dissatisfied and without much incentive to pay the increasing prices needed to maintain established news organizations.

If print and broadcast news organizations are to survive and serve the purposes for which they were established, they are going to have to start paying attention to the audiences they have, rather than the audiences they wish they had.

Monday, July 15, 2013

The Business July 17th, 2013: The Beauty Bar and the Beast Edition

Can you do the CanCan at Cannes?  You can ask this week’s guest that question and many more* as we welcome the fabulous Anna Seregina!

Anna Seregina is a San Francisco-based stand-up comic and performer. She was born in Moscow, Russia, which could explain her deep-rooted cynicism. It could also explain nothing. After being involved in theater and improv for nearly a decade and being funny for nearly a lifetime, she decided to take the plunge into stand-up comedy. Her style can nearly be defined as vocal and un-lady-like, drawing heavily on what little life experience she has. She has been described as having the "worst aura." She has performed in the 2013 & 2012 SF Sketchfest, the inaugural SF Comedy & Burrito Festival, the 2012 SF Comedy Day Festival, and the Bruise Cruise Festival. She is a regular performer at the Porchlight Storytelling series, and has been picked as one of six emerging stand-up acts in the Bay Area comedy scene by Bold Italic. Most facts about her are true. Most truths about her are facts. She is a sensational dancer.

PLUS PLUS PLUS we have the fabulous Alex Falcone!

Alex Falcone is a fresh, young, moderately attractive comedian living in Portland, OR.  Here's just a sample of the cool stuff he does:
He appeared on the IFC show Portlandia.
He writes for the Portland Mercury.
He's the host and head writer of the live talk show Late Night Action.
He is the host and producer of the surprisingly popular podcast Read it and Weep, which dissects the worst books, movies, and TV shows.
He's performed at such awesome festivals as Bumbershoot in Seattle, the Bridgetown Comedy Festival in Portland, Sketchfest in San Francisco, and the New York City Podfest.
Despite all these amazing accomplishments, he remains totally down to earth and approachable.

All that plus all your regulars!  Sean “Pretty Boy” Keane, Caitlin “Fancy” Gill, Bucky “Buck Naked” Sinister and “Naughty” Nato Green.

Get there early cause we sell this bitch out.

BYOBeautyrrito.

*NO QUESTIONS. 

The Business July 3rd, 2013: The Drenndependence Day Edition

Before we all take flight on bald eagles into the night’s sky, ablaze with spectacular fireworks (made in China), to celebrate the breech birth of this pretty bitch Amurrica let’s get together and celebrate our greatest national tradition, Business.

With Drennon Davis!

From his elaborate characters and sketches, to his provocative songs and animation, Drennon has made a name for himself as one of the most innovative minds in today’s comedy scene. His live performances of the Imaginary Radio Program combine live music and beat-boxing with one-man sketches into a show
that the Los Angeles Comedy Bureau writes "not only lives up to its name, but exceeds expectation in what you could possibly think it is." Drennon was featured on NBC's Last Call and was a semi finalist on Last Comic Standing.

And THE FUTURE: Kelly Anneken!

Kelly Anneken is the co-founder & artistic director of East Bay feminist sketch comedy troupe Femikaze, sketch writer for SF talk show "A Funny Night for Comedy," managing editor of online humor journal Hobo Pancakes, and co-host of "Up Yours, Downstairs! A Downton Abbey Podcast." In her copious free time, Kelly also performs standup comedy, as she will demonstrate.

And the oh-so-fine Ronn Vigh!

Ronn Vigh’s brash attitude and acerbic wit have earned him a comparison to a young Joan Rivers by SF Weekly. Which is a fitting comparison, since he went on to write jokes for E! Television’s “Fashion Police” co-hosted by Joan Rivers.

Join us, one and all. (except we sell out, so not technically “all”)

Just $5 dollars.  AMERICAN dollars.  Keep your Euros at home.

BYORedWhiteandBluerrito.

The Business June 26, 2013: The Business: The League of their Own Edition

This week, it just so happens that we get to laugh at a buncha Peaches.  Who knows, maybe we’ll even be managed by Tom Hanks!!  THERE’S NO CRYING IN BUSINESS.

This week’s line up is full of heavy hitters like Colleen Watson!

Colleen may be perceived as cynical, but that’s just because life is crap. She’s the kind of girl you’d get drunk with at a bar because she was sitting next to you, you’re both drinking, and she won’t leave. She is a rising comic in the San Francisco comedy scene and was a part of the 5 Funny Females tour. She’s a regular at Rooster T Feathers and the San Francisco Punch Line. She has worked with acts such as Dave Attell, Doug Benson, Chris Kattan, Laurie Kilmartin and Arj Barker. You can see on stages nightly through out the Bay Area.

The infectious (in a good way) Shanti Charan!

Shanti Charan’s bubbly personality and contagious smile lure in audiences and her comedic abilities keeps them laughing. She is a fast-rising fresh face in the Bay Area comedy scene. Her ability to formulate quick connections makes it easy for her to communicate with diverse audiences. She won 1st place in the 2011 Rooster T Feather’s Comedy Competition and participated in the 2011 San Francisco International Comedy Competition where she advanced to the semi-finals. Charan was recently awarded SF Weekly’s 2012 Best Stand-Up on the Way Up. SF Weekly says Charan’s writing “is clever and confident beyond her years.”

The sportacular Joey Devine, who insists that there IS crying in basketball!

Joey Devine was the creator and host of the acclaimed live talk show "Joey Devine After Dark," and currently runs "Move Along, Nothing To See Here: A Comedy Show" at the Night Light in Oakland. He's performed at SF Sketchfest, the SF Punch Line, and was a founding member of cult SF sketch group Frown Land. Joey currently resides on the island of Alameda with an older couple.

Of course, our regulars will be there as well, Bucky Sinister, Sean Keane and Nato Green.

WE SELL OUT GET THERE EARLY.

Just $5!  JUST $5!

BYOBurrito, peanuts and crackerjack.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Google Databoard: A new way to explore industry research

Cross-posted with the Google Research blog.

It’s important for people to stay up to date about the most recent research and insights related to their work or personal lives. But it can be difficult to keep up with all the new studies and updated data that’s out there. To make life a bit easier, we’re introducing a new take on how research can be presented. The Databoard for Research Insights enables people to explore and interact with some of Google’s recent research in a unique and immersive way. The Databoard uses responsive design to to offer an engaging experience across devices. Additionally, the tool is a new venture into data visualization and shareability with bite-sized charts and stats that can be shared with your friends or coworkers. The Databoard is currently home to several of Google’s market research studies for businesses, but we believe that this way of conveying data can work across all forms of research.


Here are some of the things that make the Databoard different from other ways research is released today:

Easy to use
All of the information in the Databoard is presented in a bite-sized way so that you can quickly find relevant information. You can explore an entire study or jump straight to the topics or data points you care about. The Databoard is also optimized for all devices so you can explore the research on your computer, tablet or smartphone.

Meant to be shared
Most people, when they find a compelling piece of data, want to share it! Whether it’s with a colleague, client, or a community on a blog or social network, compelling insights and data are meant to be shared. With the databoard, you can easily share individual charts and insights or collections of data with anyone through email or social networks, just look for the share button at the top of each chart or insight.

Create a cohesive story
Most research studies set out to answer a specific question, like how people use their smartphones in stores, or how a specific type of consumer shops. This means that businesses need to look across multiple pieces of research to craft a comprehensive business or marketing strategy. With this in mind, the Databoard lets you curate a customized infographic out of the charts or data points you find important across multiple Google research studies. Creating an infographic is quick and easy, and you can share the finished product with your friends or colleagues.

The databoard is currently home to six research studies including The New Multi-screen World, Mobile In-store shopper research and Mobile search moments. New studies will be added frequently. To get started creating your own infographic, visit the Databoard now.




Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Maketing 101 - Free Class on Creating Your First AdWords Campaign

Want to reach potential customers online, but not sure how? We’ve got good news. Starting July 22, the AdWords Guides to Success Team willl be offering Marketing 101, our first-ever massive open online course (MOOC). Register now!



The free course is for businesses who haven’t yet started advertising online or are just learning how it works. Over the course of three weeks, the class will help you understand the basics of online advertising, how it can help your business, and prepare you to start an online advertising campaign with AdWords.

Course highlights include:
  • Help thinking about your potential customers and business goals, and how to translate those goals to an online advertising campaign
  • Examples of businesses that can use online advertising
  • Interactive office hours with AdWords experts and opportunities to connect with other students
The course will also offer videos, quizzes, a worksheet, and links to additional resources and help. Here are the details:

What: Marketing 101, a massive open online course
Audience: New advertisers
When: July 22 - August 9
Requirements: Email address and a computer

Interested? Sign up for the course here.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Analytics Hangouts on Air Series: How AdWords and Analytics Work Together

AdWords Specialists hosted a Hangout on Air earlier as the first installment of the Analytics Hangouts on Air series.

During the Hangout, we talked about how to link AdWords and Analytics so that you can view Analytics data in AdWords and view AdWords data in Analytics. To further differentiate yourself in the marketplace, we talked about how to use bounce rates and other important Analytics data to optimize your AdWords account. Lastly, we looked at how to important goals from Analytics into AdWords.



To watch the full 23-minute Hangout on Air, visit the Google Business YouTube channel.

To learn more about Analytics, visit our AdWords Help Center, visit our Analytics Help Center, or call us at 866-2-GOOGLE if you already have an AdWords account.