By Alexandra Reid
As many of you probably already know, Google Plus finally rolled out brand pages this week. Upon first review, brand pages look very similar to Facebook pages, but a closer look reveals added benefits that will help businesses make closer connections with their supporters.
I’ve read lots of articles this week about whether or not businesses should create a brand page right away. Google Plus has been growing at an astounding rate, hitting 20 million users by its first weekend, and millions have joined since. Google Plus is now the fastest growing social network, already boasting 40 million users and attracting large enterprises including Pepsi, Toyota, H&M, CNN and the Dallas Cowboys. As Business 2 Community puts it, “Facebook may be at the center of the social world, but Google is positioned firmly at the center of the business world.” For these reasons, and because of its unique features, I think businesses should begin establishing their presence on the channel as soon as possible.
Google Plus brand pages are similar to Facebook in both appearance and layout, but some publications, such as Wired, have argued that Google Plus trumps Facebook, and even Twitter, in functionality.
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By Alexandra Reid
Developing relationships with influential bloggers, and those who comment on their blogs, is an excellent way to develop your online clout and community. While you spend time tweeting and posting status updates to Facebook and LinkedIn, don’t overlook the conversations taking place through the comments section on blog posts about topics that matter to you. Blogs are often where great ideas are born, and commenting on thought provoking posts helps others see you as a thought leader in your space.
However, poorly crafted comments that add no value to the conversation can have the opposite effect, signaling to others that you are a grammatically and/or spelling impaired sheep with nothing new to contribute to your space. Even worse, poorly written comments can be flagged as spam, damaging your reputation and potentially hindering your ability to comment on future posts.
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Thank you for being with us for the ninth month of our new blog. In case you missed them, here is a recap of our posts from October.
Moving forward with our two new series, Technology Marketing 101, and A Startup’s Story, we uncovered how startup BlueArc managed to move past the “wow” factor of its technology to achieve market penetration, explored the fine art of the business hustle and how it helped CommentAir Technologies bootstrap its way to market, explained how telling the right story helped Screenreach drive customer acquisition, and introduced a new startup, Genevolve Vision Diagnostics.
Beyond our series, we further investigated the roles of the IP Co-ordinator and social media champion, shared more best practices on PR and marketing and examined how the brain reacts to technology, among other subjects. And of course, we also paid our respects to the Pitch Innovator Steve Jobs. We welcome your feedback.
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This is the first article in a continuing monthly series that will chronicle the growth path of Genevolve Vision Diagnostics, a life sciences startup based in Albuquerque, NM that is commercializing cutting edge genetic research to develop new diagnostic tests and gene therapies for colour blindness.
By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
When a startup’s underlying intellectual property has already been hailed by Time Magazine as one of the year’s top 10 scientific discoveries, it may foster the perception that the road to commercial success is already assured. But president and CEO Matt Lemelin and the team at Genevolve Vision Diagnostics have learned that a great discovery is only the beginning of a long and challenging journey.
“We are creating a new market with an advanced technology that many said was not possible,” Lemelin said. “We’ve been labeled as pioneers, a term that concerns me ever since I heard a seasoned veteran state ‘pioneers get slaughtered, settlers prosper.’”
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This is the next contribution to this blog by Associate Bob Bailly, a Calgary-based neuro-marketing practitioner.
By Bob Bailly
Do you ever wonder, as I often do, if there is a dark side to modern video and digital technology? If we are indeed creatures of our animal evolution, then is our technology becoming harmful to our bodies, or, more particularly, our brains? If you work for a technology-driven company, are there unintended psychological consequences arising from what you do?
UCLA-based neuroscientist Gary Small and his author wife Gigi Vorgan think so. They say exposure to technology is actually changing the human brain, and these changes are especially pronounced in young people who have grown up with computers – what they refer to as “Digital Natives.” And their research has some far reaching implications for parents, educators and young people themselves as new media technologies become more and more pervasive.
Using functional MRI scanning to monitor brain activity of subjects, two groups of subjects – those with lots of experience using the Internet, and those who had little to no experience with computers – were asked to perform a simple Google search.
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