- Definition
Hangout is a great feature of Google+ to send and get messages, or video conference with the persons you have in your circles and with whatever devices you have, because Google Hangout conversations are automatically synchronized.
Hangout also plays a crucial role in business meetings, reports updating, and internal communications. There are numerous applications available which are designed specifically for businesses and online marketers to improve their users experience.
This feature of Google+ helps you keep in touch with your network whether using Gmail, Google+, Chrome browser extension or Android and iOS devices.
You will be able to share images, send documents, introduce new products or services and make a video or audio call to users in your circles without spending any money.
You can have a one-on-one conversation or communicate with a group of your employees, customers or friends. The Chat synchronization feature is also for communicating easily.
Hangout can also be used for a zero cost video call with just a tap. You can add up to 10 users at a time or have a one-on-one conversation. You can make free voice calls with your devices to other hangout users.
- What can you do with it?
There are a lot of things you can do with Google Hangout and apply in your online business strategies.
Promotional videos:
Advertising videos are a great method to extend your audience reach. You can record your meeting, tips, testimonies, presentations, product launches and demonstrations, and upload them to your YouTube channel to get more views and customers.
Q&A sessions:
Turn your hangout sessions into a Q&A session to communicate and engage your potential customers. To make a Q&A session hangout, you need to opt for a topic that relates to your products or services. You can also have an expert from your business answer customers’ questions via text.
Host a webinar:
To host a webinar for your customers and not spend any money for the webinar platform, you can take advantage of Google Hangout. It allows only 10 users at a time, though. To add more users, you can use other applications.
Hold meetings:
Hangout can also be used to hold meetings or for internal communications. Meetings can be done one-on-one or one-on-many. You can share your screen and reviews of a particular meeting with other users.
- How offline businesses can use it?
Google Hangout also works great for businesses to do video conferencing, connect face-to-face with their audience or share their expertise. Businesses can manage their hangouts via their smartphone, desktop or laptop.
It also works with Android and iOS devices, and automatically synchronizes the information and conversations.
Service Call:
Businesses can use Google Hangout as a customer support tool to resolve customer questions and provide guidance to help them understand products or services. Hangout can also be utilized to create FAQ videos to assist your customers.
Improve Communication:
Google Hangout enables businesses to connect with their customers. With it, you can do a one-on-one communication with your customers. You can also make a Google Hangout community to share your business news, new arrivals, special promotions and offers.
For later postings, you can record your hangout videos, so that other audiences can watch it.
Product Demonstration:
Hangout is a great way to demonstrate products, services or new arrivals to make your audience aware of your brand presence in the market. You can also create “how-to” videos to educate and guide your customers on how they can benefit from your products.
Announcing new upgrades of existing products is a great idea, as well as FAQs, which can allow customers to resolve their questions by themselves.
- How affiliate marketers can use it
Google hangout is another way of promoting your products on Google+ and other social media sites.
Affiliate marketers can also take advantage of this Google feature to create promo videos, webinars, demo videos, getting ideas for writing eBooks and email auto responders.
Google+ doesn’t have any criteria to forbid advertising of affiliate products on business networks. Affiliates can get more exposure for their promotional content. As an affiliate, you can reserve Google+ authorship for the sites on which you write product reviews to provide more weight and consideration during search results.
You can connect with users who are more likely to purchase affiliate products from the same niche you are promoting. Add people that are more likely to buy the affiliate products you are promoting to specific circles.
You can create a circle for those types of customers to share reviews and updates for those potential buyers, as well as the public. You can include the best affiliate product review links to your Google+ profile.
You can provide your own bonuses with the product you are advertising, add the images of those bonuses in status updates and share. You can also link the status update to your review post.
You can host a Hangout for targeted subscribers and motivate them to sign up for your mailing list to book their spot in the Hangout. With this, you will be able to create your own leads, promote affiliate products to those leads and get more users into your product’s sales funnel.
Keep an eye on your niche competitors’ circles to offer more choice based products that match your audience’s needs.
