How to use Google Hangouts for Business

by | Nov 22, 2015 | Google+, Social Marketing, Video Marketing

What Google Hangouts is all about

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:

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 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.

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.

Why you should definitely use Google Hangouts for your Business today

Both businesses and marketers focus on online marketing strategies to increase their presence on the internet.

Google hangout is a crucial part of every online marketing strategy to enable you to do video conferencing, meetings, webinars, etc.

The use of Google hangout differs for different industries. Take a look at the benefits

to evaluate why you need to include this tool in your online marketing strategy.

Better Communication

Google Hangout enables you to connect with your prospects and engage them. Communicating with users become easy with Google hangout because everything takes place in real time.

A real time connection motivates further engagement. Users can ask questions and this live interaction adds a positive impact for your business.

Group conversations can also be done with nine members. For the maximum utilization of Hangout, use the Hangout applications.

Google Hangout also assists you in the sharing of documents, text messages, hosting webinars, live conferencing, etc.

Product demonstration

Google Hangout is a great way to showcase your product. A video series can be created to demonstrate the product and make your audience aware of how they can use your product and how it works.

Product demonstrations can also be used to educate your customers because video is the best way to explain a product’s benefits. You can also record videos and upload them to other video websites to get traffic for your video content.

This can improve your brand’s SEO ranking because video is much better than text and images. Audiences can get a clear understanding of your products.

Behind the scenes content

Behind the scenes videos are effective marketing strategies and perform well in promotions. These kinds of videos drive traffic to your business website to get prospective clients and enhance word of mouth promotions.

Post behind the scenes videos on your website and other social media platforms. To drive new customers, you need to make behind the scenes videos more attractive and appealing. Take advantage of still images, music, graphics, audio, etc.

Low cost

for internal meetings and conversations.

Google Hangout is a great tool to improve communication internally and externally with employees and clients, respectively without spending too much money.

To establish a Google hangout, you only need a device with a webcam and microphone. The communication can be one-on-one and one-on-many.

Save videos for future uploading to your website and blogs. You can also do text messages and video or audio calls around your Google network without spending too much money. But if you make a call on a mobile network, normal calling charges will be applied.

Accessibility

There are some people who don’t own a Google account but can join hangout as a guest participant. Guest hangout is also accessible across computers and android and iOS devices.

Google hangout helps you connect with customers and become accessible.

To become more accessible, you can have a Q&A session and request your customers ask questions and provide feedback. This can extend your reach to new audiences.

Answer customer questions

Customer support is a crucial part of every business. Good customer support can help you enhance customer trust and belief in your product and services.

use of your product. An FAQ video series can also be a great method to solve their questions.

Covering every aspect of your product in FAQs will improve customers’ trust in your brand. A step by step guide or video tutorial can work well for your business.

If you have great customer support, your audience will recommend you in their networks, so you can get more sales and profits.

Offer yourself as a consultant

To extend visibility in your potential market, you can showcase your expertise. Find out the uniqueness of your business and offer yourself as a consultant to educate your audience about your product via Google hangout.

With Google hangout, you can interact face to face with your customers. Promoting this service on Google and other social media websites can increase traffic to your website.

You can also engage with other experts who are showing interest in your offerings.

Host a webinar or live conference

Webinars or live conferences can play an important role in your online marketing strategy. Google Hangout has similar features that most webinar tools have.

Businesses can share their screen for a live demonstration, attach documents and allow access of shared files from your Google drive.

advertise new products and services or make your audience aware of your products. Use recorded videos to increase visibility of your brand.

Manage better meetings

Google hangout can be an easy method to get all of your staff members together for a meeting. Presence in the office is not mandatory.

Members can attend the meeting from anywhere with any device. It works great with iOS, android, laptops and desktops.

Hangout video calling enables you to conference call and host live webinars from anywhere around the world. This Google tool allows up to nine members per chat session, which makes hangout a prime hosting platform for online meetings.

Create tutorials

Tutorials are really crucial to inform your audience about your products. You can show them how to use it, the benefits of your products and how to set them up.

Using hangout, you can create a step by step guide to educate your customers about your products and services.

A series of step by step videos can also be helpful to increase the awareness among prospects. You can create guides, FAQs and how to videos. To get more views, upload these videos to your blog, website and YouTube channel.

Shocking Facts
  • 13% of small businesses use Google+. (Source)
  • Google+ reaches 38% of the total U.S. population. (Source)
  • 17% of B2B marketers use Google+ in new product launches. (Source)
  • There are about 2.2 billion Google+ profiles online. (Source)
  • 53% of Google+ user interactions are positive. (Source)
  • 70% of business brands have a presence on Google+. (Source)
  • 41% of B2C marketers and 39% of B2B marketers are using Google+ to source new business. (Source)
  • Thrillist Media Group (TMG) used hangouts to reach over 11 million users across the globe. (Source)
  • Usage of Hangouts in enterprise organizations increased by 133% between 2013 and 2014. (Source)
  • TopShop got 7,500 live views of red carpet hangout and there was an average 11-minute engagement with hangout apps where 52% were reshares. (Source)
  • Regular Hangouts are free video conferencing calls with up to 10 people, done through the Google+ website or their mobile app. (Source)
  • Just have your YouTube channel verified for uploads of more than 15 minutes and most hangouts run longer than that. (Source)
  • With Hangout, you can broadcast for 8 hours. (Source)
  • President Obama has hosted a Google+ Hangout, as have NASA astronauts on board the International Space Station. (Source)

The Top X Google Hangouts Automation Tools.

Hangout Tool Box

Hangout Tool Box is a Google Hangout automation tool that is used in Video Hangouts and Hangouts On Air (recordings). Google hangout has appropriate applications to improve your hangout experience.

Lower thirds are banners at the bottom of a display window. You can display your name and tagline or website URL to make the audience aware of who you are and what you do.

Volume Control allows you to control the audio for each user. You can set the volume how you’d like or mute the complete Hangout with a click.

Comment tracker helps you see the audiences’ comments, whether it is on YouTube or Google+.

You can use preset or self-designed meme faces to have fun in Hangout.

Cacoo

Cacoo is an easy to use online drawing tool for sitemaps, network charts, UML and much more. To use Cacoo, you need to have a Google+ account. If you don’t have one, you’ll need to sign up for a Google+ account. You can start hangouts with the people in your circle or invite others.

With this tool, you can plan a future video conference. Hangout users can discuss their ideas via a diagram during a live video chat. It makes you feel that everyone is in the same room. More than one user can write on your diagram in real time on the same whiteboard.

The 10 do’s you have to apply.

To engage your audience with your business and interact face to face with your customers, you can include hangout in your online marketing strategies and take advantage of it.

Here are some do’s that will assist you to move forward correctly.

Create Circles

Take advantage of Google+ communities to create specific circles according to your audience’s interests, demographics and

geographical locations, and target each circle individually.

Audiences will also be able to Hangout with you, if they are in your circle.

You can create a unique “Circle” for a particular hangout by inviting only those users with whom you’d like to participate.

Solicit Twitter and Google

Google Hangouts provides a chance to boost engagement with your audience via live, real-time, multimedia interaction.

The X don’ts you have to avoid.

Marketers and businesses use Hangouts to communicate with employees and customers. To build a better relationship with your customers, you need to avoid the following mistakes:

Don’t jump into a conversation

Don’t start talking between conversations or anticipate that everyone will participate in a systematic and methodical manner.

This will leave a bad impression on your brand.

You need to define a host and set basic rules for the Hangout for a successful conversation.

Don’t use Hangouts in a noisy or crowded place

Don’t sit in a crowded place and use Hangouts to communicate with users. Participants will be unable to hear you properly.

This will impact your business badly. Users don’t like interruptions and background noises.

Avoid noisy places and look for a private space during a Hangout to diminish disturbances.

Be formal and behave properly in a Hangout conversation, because you are representing your business.

If you behave badly, users will block your notifications and invitations. This will bring your business down and you will start losing users.

To avoid this situation, always look professional and behave in a well-organized manner.

Don’t talk over the speakers

Talking over other speakers is the most common problem on Hangouts. If you shout in a loud voice, no one will listen and users will leave the hangout conversation.

After a period of time, you will not be able to engage audiences and you’ll lose your potential customers.

To maximize the potency of the Hangout, give yourself the proper time to prepare and promote it.

Shocking Google Hangouts Marketing Case Studies.

Topshop

Topshop is a leading fashion brand owned by Arcadia Group. The company was established in 1964 and its headquarters is located in London, UK. It has 140 stores in international territories in 38 markets.

The company wanted to set a trend through inventive execution of its product and boost engagement.

Topshop partnered with Google+ to unlock a series of innovative online happenings. The company used hangout for their Be The Model, Be Part Of The

Team, Be The Front Row Fashionista and Be The Buyers Hangouts.

TopShop also utilized unique content to provide great results.

As a result, TopShop got 4 million views across all platforms and 2.5 million views on YouTube. There were more than 400,000 Google+ views, a 400% increase.

There were 7,500 live views of the red carpet hangout with an average of 11 minutes of engagement via the Hangout app and 52% re-shares.

Coolhaus

Coolhaus is a manufacturer and retailer of artisan gourmet ice cream sandwiches, also known as “sammies”, and other organic frozen desserts.

Their aim was to reach their audience via mobile, protect themselves from being labeled a spammer, and needed a robust communication tool for instant conversation.

The company took advantage of Google Mobile Apps, Gmail, Google Chats and Hangout, to communicate and engage their audience. Natasha and Freya utilized Google Apps for Business to expand their business.

Miami and Dallas. The company was mainly using Google Apps to organize meetings and administer their 50+ employees across different locations and time zones.

Clinique

Clinique is the world’s first allergy tested cosmetics brand that was developed by a dermatologist. Each skincare and makeup product is allergy tested and are without fragrance.

The goal of company was to engage and interact with beauty fans, as well as to provide information and share content.

Top Google Hangouts Marketing Resources

Videos

Tools

Training Courses

Blogs

Forums

  • https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/hangouts
  • http://forum.jostle.me/entries/78965485-Google-Hangouts

Affiliate Programs

  • https://www.jvzoo.com/products?csrf_protected=13143667fc55834489cc5d791eefd56c&terms= hangouts&cat=&subcat=
  • https://accounts.clickbank.com/mkplSearchResult.htm?dores=true&includeKeywords=hangout s

Infographics

Case Studies

  • http://readarticle.com/video-list-builder-jv-page-3-2/
  • http://runclick.com/

Facts

  • http://www.thepowerofplus.com/bonuses/10_facts_hangouts.pdf

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