This week, The Business regulars are stuffing your enchiladas with baguettes as we welcome a bill of guests that would have Napoleon III plieing in his grave hard enough to knock off the sugar skulls.
Clara Bijl is visiting us from The City of Angels, but was born in The City of Light. PARIS, FRANCE. She was raised in the Alps, attended schools in Germany, Switzerland, and South Carolina; then one day, she moved to The City that Never Sleeps to begin a career in stand-up comedy. Performing all around the Big Apple and the rest of the country, she became a prolific writer of cutting, witty, internationally flavored comedy.
She will truffle your butter. Frankie Quinones is a rising star to search for and catch. He is a founding member of For The People Comedy, is a collective of artists who share a common goal of producing colorful events fueled by positivity and laughter. Always maintaining a diverse lineup to represent San Francisco culture through high energy shows filled with humor and music. Frankie has also toured with some of the industry’s top headliners including the legendary Paul Rodriguez, and has performed for our troops overseas in Japan, Europe, and the Middle East.
He is also quite dapper. Muy rico suave.
This show is gonna feel like French kissing a churro. It’s gonna be like peeping on the Dos Equis guy with a French maid. It’s gonna make you wanna escarGO(silentT) see more live comedy!!! EIYIYI!!!! (I’m sorry)
Grab $5, your burrito and your beret and come join our fantastic guests and all the regulars! (except Alex, who we wish well in the wilds of the Northwest. If you are reading this in Tacoma, Washington- go see his shows this weekend at the Comedy Underground!)
Last week we introduced you to the concept of Social Engineering - manipulating people’s trust to gain confidential information. Phishing is a type of social engineering that can also be targeted towards businesses. We recommend you educate yourself and your employees to safeguard against this threat.
Recognize the signs Phishing is a technique used to obtain personal information. The most common way a phisher obtains this information is through a spam email which appears to come from a legitimate source (e.g. a bank, a credit card company) requesting certain action to be taken. The email will usually have a link which will lead to a fraudulent web page and may have a form requesting you to enter personal information.
What many small businesses don’t realise is that phishing can happen over the phone, too (called ‘vishing’). In this type of scam the ‘phisher’ will try and get the information they want over the phone by making some kind of false claim (e.g. your IT department has requested you update your security software). Once the caller has gained the consumer's trust, they may ask the person on the phone to log onto a website to download a file to help solve the problem. The file may be infected with a virus which would give the Phisher access to your personal information.
Once scammers have 'phished' out your information (or potentially even customer information), they could use it in a number of ways. Credit cards could be used for unauthorized purchases, or information might be gathered for an identity theft scam.
Keep your Google account secure As a Google product user, remember Google does not send emails asking you to update your personal information. We also never call customers asking for their passwords or requesting they download any programs. If you think you've received a phishing email that's trying to trick you into thinking it is from Google, don't reply to the email itself. Instead, report the phishing email to us.
To add an extra layer of security to your Google account, you can enable 2-step verification (and see video below). You will enter a code from your phone, as well as your username and password - when you sign in. If someone steals login information through phishing or social engineering, the potential hijacker still won’t have access to your phone.
For even more tips on keeping your business safe online, check out our Good to Know website.
Editor’s note: Each week on the Google+ Your Business page, we’re putting you in touch with Googlers and users who can help you as a business owner get the most out of our products and features.
In our latest Help Desk Hangout On Air, we introduced you to Google Places for business, a tool to help you manage your local business information on Google. Joel Headley, one of our in-house Places gurus, showed us how to get started, shared some best practices and answered your questions. If you missed it, you’re in luck: You can watch the full hour-long Hangout on the Google Business YouTube channel:
Some of the questions we answered during the Hangout:
When a business simply relocates, what is the best way to set up the new address in Places?
You should report the listing with the old address as closed via the Report a problem link on the listing itself (under the “more” dropdown). Our team receives that report and puts a “This place is permanently closed” label on the listing, so that customers who know your business to be located at that old address will know not to go there. And then, create and verify a brand new listing for the business’s new location.
What are the gray labels on the map itself, and how do I get one for my business?
The little icons (fork and knife, etc.) on the map are called Place labels, and because those are generated algorithmically, there’s no way for you to manually add one for your business.
How do I get my Places listing to appear for certain keyword searches?
We don’t offer advice on how to do this, but here’s a great video about how we approach local search ranking.
What should I put in the description field of my page?
Think of the description as your elevator pitch. Keep it short and sweet, and valuable to customers looking to learn more about your business. Don’t stuff it with a bunch of keywords — it won’t help you and it definitely won’t help potential customers.
When are Google Places accounts going to be connected to Google+ pages?
A popular question! We’ve heard your feedback, and we’re continuing to evaluate how these tools might work together in the future.
I went through the owner verification process, but for some reason user-generated content still appears on my page. Why?
Think of a business listing as a search result, featuring information pulled together from sources around the web (third party data providers, end-users, and, of course, business owners). When you owner verify your listing, this just means you now have access to other features complementary to the listing — like analytics or offers — and editing abilities via the Places dashboard. We allow the most recently verified edit to display on a listing — whether it’s from a user via the “Report a problem” feature or a third-party provider — in an effort to maintain an accurate and up to date map.
What are “at a glance” terms, and why are they appearing on my owner-verified page? These descriptive terms are meant to give users a quick snapshot of what a particular business is known for. We generate these terms algorithmically, from various sources around the Web. There’s no way to add or edit these terms in your Places dashboard. See our article on reporting inappropriate terms.
I don’t have a storefront and serve customers at their location. Can I list my business on Google Maps?
Absolutely. These types of businesses are what we call service area businesses, and we have a whole Help guide on how to create a service area listing. Note that if you don't conduct face-to-face business at your location, you must hide your address per the Google Places quality guidelines. In your Places dashboard, while editing a listing, look for the “Do not show my business address” checkbox under the section “Service Areas and Location Settings.”
I’m having an issue with my listing, how do I contact support?
We have a support team that works with users to correct bad listing data and verification issues. Visit the “Contact Us” section on the Help Center homepage and you’ll see two options: Listing issues and Verification issues. Click the link that applies, answer the questions, fill out the short form, and hit Submit. Give a member of the support team a few days to investigate your issue and get back to you via e-mail.
To learn more about how to get started with Google Places for business, visit our Help Center or check out the Google and Your Business forum. And join us for next week’s Hangout at 11 a.m. PDT Wednesday April 11, when we discuss how to get started blogging using on Blogger. We’ll be collecting your Blogger questions early next week on the Google+ Your Business page.
Posted by Vanessa Schneider, Google Places community manager
This week our guests help us soar like we’ve never soared before. Business regulars Sean Kean, Alex Koll, Chris Garcia, Caitlin Gill and Chris Thayer (Bucky Sinister can’t be with us, though he’s still a proud eagle dreamer) welcome two of the finest comedians to come out of America since the birth of our Nation (by caesarean).
Matt Leib’s parents named him after the famous beef of Mattlieb, Japan, which they saw on a restaurant menu. He and former-teammate Shaquille O'Neal (actually, just him) led the Lakers to three consecutive NBA championships from 2000 to 2002. In 2003, he made headlines when he was accused of sexual assault at a ski resort in Eagle, Colorado by hotel employee Katelyn Faber. He admitted an adulterous sexual encounter with the accuser, but denies the sexual assault allegation. In September 2004, prosecutors dropped the case after Faber informed them that she was unwilling to testify.
(I asked Matt if Shaq is as friendly in real life as he seems in the movies. He just dunked on me, so I’m still not sure.)
You can also catch his weekly show on FCCFree Radio, Where Eagles Dare.
Kurt Weitzmann began performing stand up in 1987 at the infamous Holy City Zoo in San Francisco, a dark and wondrous place. His act has been seen on Comedy central and (ashamedly) MTV but more recently at The Vancouver Comedy Festival and at San Francisco Sketchfest. In between Stand Up performances Kurt founded numerous Bay Area sketch groups, including Nervous laughter, Comedy Noir and The Twist Off Cabaret. Kurt was honored as a semifinalist in the Reverie Next Generation Playwrights Competition last year for his dramatic feature length play, The Abnormal Psychology of God.
(He has also been honored with the award for Best Sushi Rolled by a German.)
His highly acclaimed comedy sketch album Talented is now available on American Dream Records.
THIS SHOW COSTS ONLY $5 AMERICAN. Bring your dead presidents and a burrito to The Dark Room, patriots!
Social engineering is the manipulation of the natural human tendency to trust. A social engineer’s main goal is gaining unauthorized access to systems or information in order to commit fraud. In most cases the social engineer never comes face to face with the victim. Social Engineering is steadily increasing as cyber criminals exploit people in tough economic times. Anyone can be a target for social engineers, including small businesses.
Educate yourself and your employees As a small business, you may always update your anti-virus software, but what other actions do you take to keep your business secure? For example, have you educated your employees recently on what information is safe to divulge and to whom they can divulge it? Understanding social engineering techniques can help you develop a plan for how to protect your business from them.
Before you give any information away, think about the following:
Why are you you being asked for this information? Is it usual to be asked for this sort of information in this format?
Is the request coming from a known source?
What consequences might come from misuse of the information you've been asked to provide or the action you have to take?
Is there pressure to take action now?
Using this list can help you think carefully before providing a response and make you more confident in your decision before divulging sensitive information.
Recognize the signs The list below describes some of the more common social engineering techniques:
Impersonation: They may pose as a repairman, helpdesk tech or trusted third party.
Name Dropping: They may use names of people from your company/family to make you believe they know you and gain your trust.
Aggression: They also may try to intimidate you by threatening to escalate to a manager / executive if you do not provide the information/access they have requested.
Conformity: They may tell you that everyone else has provided the information so it’s fine for you to provide the same.
Friendliness: Over time, they may contact you with an aim of building up a rapport with you. Eventually the social engineer will ask for sensitive information when he/she feels the trust has been built up.
Stay tuned for future posts on keeping your business secure, and check out online safety tips anytime on our Good to Know website.
From international brands to local food trucks, every business wants to make important decisions with their customers’ feedback in mind. Which version of your new logo will people like better? How much interest do dog owners have in organic dog food? Is your brand awareness growing over time?
We now have a new option for companies looking to answer these types of questions and more: Google Consumer Surveys. Whether you’re a Fortune 500 company or a local bike shop, Consumer Surveys makes market research fast, accurate, and affordable.
You can create an online survey in minutes, have responses within hours and fully analyzed results in days. We do all the heavy lifting for you, finding interesting nuggets of information (or “insights”) and providing you with tools for digging deeper.
Here’s how it works: people browsing the web come across your questions when they try to access high quality content like news articles or videos. Answering the question gives them near instant access to the page they want. All responses are anonymous; they aren’t tied to users’ identity or later used to target ads. This provides an alternative to the traditional paywall model: site visitors don’t have to pull out a wallet or sign in, publishers get paid as their site visitors respond, and you gain insight into what people think -- for just $0.10 per response for the general US population or $0.50 per response for custom audiences.
We’ve already been working with a number of companies researching everything from online shopping behavior (Lucky Brand Jeans) to gluten-free baking mixes (King Arthur Flour), and using Consumer Surveys to track brand awareness (Timbuk2) and inform product development (479 Popcorn). Check out google.com/insights/consumersurveys to learn more.
When we launched Google+ Pages last November, we aimed to provide you with a way to post updates and news about your business, have engaging conversations with customers, and send tailored messages to specific groups of people.
We’re now excited to share that Google Ads will be joining Google+ Pages to provide you, our advertising partners, with the latest Google advertising product news, training, tips and Hangouts that can help make the web work for you. We hope it will become a useful resource for growing your business, reaching customers in the moments that matter, and making smarter decisions.
Here’s a quick peek at what you can expect from the Google Ads page on Google+:
Stay ahead of the curve with the latest launches and updates for Google's advertising solutions, including search, display, mobile, social, YouTube and Google Analytics
Receive how-to information, best practices, and recommendations
Learn about upcoming trainings and events
Attend Hangouts with product experts
Add Google Ads to your circles here. We look forward to connecting with you on Google+.
Posted by Christina Park and Katie Miller, Ads Product Marketing
