Marketing Local Online

Google Social Search is a new feature of Google searches.  The intention is to increase your personal trust level by including what you friends and aquaintances have said about the topic you are searching for.

If you are a regular person looking for info by doing a Google search, Google has always wanted to give you exactly what you are looking for.  That does not always happen – but now Google wants to help increase “word of mouth”  from your social circle in the hopes that you will trust what they have said more than what Google says in the results.

There are a few reasons the social circle results are coming at an interesting time.  First, if you have a webpage, there are new laws in the US that regulate what you put on your pages in terms of testimonials, ie word of mouth.   A disclaimer must be added to that site stating if you are making money off of the testimonials, and you must show actual results which are being claimed.    Now Google is dishing up ”results from people in your social circle” which include random personal opinions of your social circle – it seems to circumvent the need for disclaimers since none of this is placed on a webpage.  It simply exists all over the internet in a cloud of public opinion.

As an internet marketer, I can see many interesting ways to use this new tool. 

First, if you have a web business, this is going to enhance your ability to become a “trusted source” of information.  Creating a Google profile for your business becomes very useful,  which is a service my business can provide for you.  Within the profile, you place links to your web presence, like your Twitter account , any blogs you have which are linked to in your Google Reader account,  and your FriendFeed account, and even Yelp reviews.   This is another strategy that a web business should pursue, and since this is new, the results are not known but well worth pursuit.  

Will this take away the need for disclaimers on web pages?  If you are linking your reviews through Yelp,  disclaimers become part of Yelp’s problem, apparently.   That alone makes it worth the time and effort. 

Also, your Twitter followers become part of your social network – not only that, Google will include their followers into your extended social network.   The importance of your Twitter account is now becoming clearer.  What topics you tweet can now be part of someone’s social search results.