Today I did a webinar for Bulldog Reporter/PR University titled "Google+ for PR: Mastering Google+ Pages and Hangouts—Best Bets for Brands in 2013" and while I was indeed sharing the stage with the amazing Stephanie Scott, Katie Morse, Danielle Brigida, and Brian Pittman, this is just my part of the presentation without any edits or changes or cuts -- so you're welcome to enjoy just my part of it, wherein I talk about the three types of Google+ for Brands adopters: Hot & Heavies, Afterthoughts, and Zombie Ghost Towns. I hope you enjoy this, learn loads, and ask me tons of questions.

1. Proprietary and Confidential
BIG BRANDS ON GOOGLE+ BUSINESS
(Hot & Heavy, Ghost Town, or Afterthought)
PREPARED FOR: THE BULLDOG REPORTER/PR UNIVERSITY
MARCH 22, 2013
Brand + Digital

2. Proprietary and Confidential
ABOUT CHRIS
(The Next Panel Member)
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3. Proprietary and Confidential
Chris Abraham, Director, Social Media
BIO
Chris Abraham is director of social media at Unison
Agency, a branding and digital agency based in
Georgetown, Washington, DC.
Chris is a leading expert in digital: online reputation
management (ORM), Internet privacy, social media
marketing and digital PR with a focus on blogger
outreach, blogger engagement and Internet crisis
response.
A pioneer in online social networks and publishing, with
a natural facility for anticipating the next big thing, Chris
is an Internet analyst, web strategy consultant and
advisor to the industries’ leading companies. Chris is
based in Arlington, VA.
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4. Proprietary and Confidential
Chris Abraham, Director, Social Media
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5. Proprietary and Confidential
ABOUT UNISON
Agency Overview
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6. Proprietary and Confidential
OUR GOAL: BUILDING MEMORABLE EXPERIENCES
Behind every great brand there is a
compelling story. Unique. Inspiring.
Unprecedented. Iconic. Defining.
Enduring.
Unison’s business is getting to the heart of human
behavior and creating compelling stories through user-
centered, integrated experiences. In doing so, our
brands cut through the noise of our information-
overloaded, 21st century lives to create recognition,
stimulate action and build loyalty.
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7. Proprietary and Confidential
AGENCY SNAPSHOT
2003 Founded
3 Offices
6 Industry segments
11+ Languages
25+ Employees
11 Disciplines
35+ Countries
1 Global network
ALLIANCES/PARTNERS GLOBAL EXPERIENCE
Unison serves clients in 35+ countries
across government, not-for-profit, retail,
hospitality, financial services, and energy
sectors.
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8. Proprietary and Confidential
OUR CAPABILITIES
KEY SERVICES
BRAND: What we need customers to think and feel to achieve the goals of a
business at every interaction (decision point) with a brand
PRODUCT/EXPERIENCE DESIGN: How we increase value through innovation
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE OMNI-CHANNEL EXPERIENCES: How we engage customers across all channels in
alignment with the brand
CAMPAIGNS & STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: How we drive customers to take
action in alignment with the business goals
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9. Proprietary and Confidential
GOOGLE+ BRANDS
What’s Up With That?
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10. Proprietary and Confidential
THREE WAYS GOOGLE+ ARE EMBRACED BY BRANDS
• Hot & Heavy
• Fully-embracing and implementing G+ features
• Keeping content updated and fresh
• Responding quickly to queries
• Afterthought
• Cross-posting content prepared for Facebook
• Auto-posting content via HootSuite
• Not cross-promoting Page (low follower count)
• Zombie Ghost Town
• Hot & heavy initially but inconsistent posting or abandonment
• Squandering hundreds-of-thousands of active followers
• Not updating G+ profile to current look/feel
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11. Proprietary and Confidential
HOT & HEAVY: HUGO BOSS
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12. Proprietary and Confidential
HOT & HEAVY: ALLSTATE INSURANCE
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13. Proprietary and Confidential
HOT & HEAVY: MASHABLE
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14. Proprietary and Confidential
HOT 7 HEAVY: ANGRY BIRDS
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15. Proprietary and Confidential
HOT & HEAVY: VIRGIN
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HOT & HEAVY: STARBUCKS
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HOT & HEAVY (CHAUD ET LOURD): CIRQUE DU SOLEIL
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18. Proprietary and Confidential
HOT AND HEAVY: THE NEW YORK TIMES
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19. Proprietary and Confidential
HOT & HEAVY: BAYERISCHE MOTOREN WERKE AG
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20. Proprietary and Confidential
HOT & HEAVY: BRITNEY SPEARS
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21. Proprietary and Confidential
HOT & HEAVY: MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT
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22. Proprietary and Confidential
HOT & HEAVY: NASA
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23. Proprietary and Confidential
TIPS: HOT & HEAVY DEMANDS SEPARATE AND EQUAL
• Google+ should be a child not a cousin
• Repurposing from Facebook is fine but G+ is separate but equal
• G+ offers hashtags, “+” tagging, galleries, albums
• Promote & cross-promote G+ equally as Twitter & FB
• All the cool kids are doing G+ by hand
• Leading with full-sized images
• Following with short URLs to content
• Adding tags and hashes when needed
• Post every single (week) day (forever)
• Your followers are your friends
• Don’t just preach at them, chat with them!
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24. Proprietary and Confidential
HOT & HEAVY & AFTERTHOUGHT: TOYOTA & TOYOTA USA
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25. Proprietary and Confidential
HOT & HEAVY AFTERTHOUGHT: FOX NEWS
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26. Proprietary and Confidential
AFTERTHOUGHT: ZAPPOS.COM HAS FEWER THAN 5K FOLLOWS
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27. Proprietary and Confidential
TIPS: AFTERTHOUGHTS MAY BE GOOD-FOR-NOW
• Sometimes some G+ is better than no G+
• Cross-posting or auto-posting is a good start
• While not a community, it may help SEO
• At least your G+ profile isn’t a ghost town
• At least you’re moving forward
• Testing the waters is fine for a while
• HootSuite allows bulk-upload auto-posting
• Cannot use the photo upload + tiny URL strategy
• Cannot “+” tagging strategy to include others
• Auto-posting puts brand page out of mind
• If you don’t tend your garden, it’ll never grow
• Just ask Chauncey Gardiner of Being There
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28. Proprietary and Confidential
ZOMBIE GHOST TOWN: PEPSI
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29. Proprietary and Confidential
ZOMBIE GHOST TOWN: YAHOO!
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30. Proprietary and Confidential
ZOMBIE GHOST TOWN FAIL: “O” BY CIRQUE DU SOLEIL
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31. Proprietary and Confidential
ZOMBIE GHOST TOWN: MACY’S
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32. Proprietary and Confidential
ZOMBIE GHOST TOWN: THE MUPPETS
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33. Proprietary and Confidential
TIPS: ZOMBIE GHOST TOWNS HURT MORE THAN HELP
• Squandering hundreds-of-thousands of followers
• Cross-posting or auto-posting is a good start
• Broken windows theory of online community
• The theory states that maintaining and monitoring urban
environments in a well-ordered condition may stop further vandalism
and escalation into more serious.
• A blog, site, or social media profile that is poorly maintained
telegraphs a lack of brand esprit de corps
• Better to take down/delete zombie ghost towns
• Better yet to get the lead out and at least upgrade to making Google+
Brands pages an afterthought
• Visitors respond more to your voice than what you say
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34. Proprietary and Confidential
THANK YOU! ANY QUESTIONS? YES, YOU CAN START WITH ME:
myTWITTER: @chrisabraham unTWITTER: @UnisonAgency
myFACEBOOK: /chrisabraham unFACEBOOK: /UnisonAgency
myLINKEDIN: /in/chrisabraham unLINKEDIN: /company/unison-agency
myEMAIL: chris@unisonagency.com unEMAIL: chris@unisonagency.com
myBLOG: chrisabraham.com
myG+/Talk: cabraham@gmail.com
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202.337.7887 212.777.0907 213.744.7901
202.466.6235
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