Last week, Google announced (to MUCH fanfare online, but little fanfare offline) that they will be using more social search in their search engine ratings. What this means is you will see, if your friends and/or you are using Google+ (or other Google products) and you are using Google to search that you’ll see more personalized results from people in your network. Google calls it “Search Plus Your World” and it’s pretty interesting.

Rather than bore you with all the details, here’s a 70 second video from Google explaining the change a bit more.

Can’t see the video above? Click here to watch Google Search Plus Your World on YouTube

While Twitter and Google have gone back and forth on this (Twitter saying this is bad, and Google saying it’s all Twitter’s fault, read about it here), Jon Mitchell over at Read Write Web has written the best explanation of how Google is doing what it’s doing – and how you might incorporate it into your website too.

My thoughts on this are simple: Google is the biggest site for search. If you want to rank well on their site, you need to leverage their tools in the right way to boost your rankings. I’m not passing judgement – just sharing a statement of what I believe to be true.

How can you leverage Google’s tools in the right way?

Get a Google profile – You need to start by showing people how YOU want to be found. As a small business owner, stand up and be counted. Set up a complete profile at http://profiles.google.com

Put your business on the (Google) map – Add your business to Google Places listing sooner than later. Add as much information as you know. Don’t worry – you can edit it later.

Upload some photos of your business and your neighborhood on Picasa – Small businesses are seldom are so private you don’t want to share pictures of your building and your neighborhood. Take a few snaps with your smart phone or digital camera, and upload them to Picasa.

Read more about the changes in Google’s own words at Search, plus Your World.

YOUR TURN: Are you doing anything differently because of these changes? If so, what is YOUR best way to take advantage of Google’s recent changes? What help do you need to take best advantage of these changes?

- if your goal is to broadcast your message to as many potential customers as possible. In fact, if numbers are your only metric of success, then don’t waste your time with Google+ right now.

OK, now that the 7 of you disbelievers have stopped reading, let’s continue for the rest of you.

Google+ stats

Paul Allen reports Google+ has 62 million users, adding 625k users each day. (Image courtesy of Paul Allen).

Quoting Paul: “If this rate of new signups (625k daily) continues then Google+ will reach 100 million users on Feb. 25th and 200 million users on August 3. They will finish 2012 with 293 million users.”

To explain that in ways you can understand and compare it to something else, Facebook reports it has about 750 million users, putting Google+ at 39% as many users as Facebook – in just 12 months for Google+.

I bet you’re a little more interested now.

Other reasons to use Google+ for Small Business

1) As a first/early mover of businesses using Google+, folks will see your small business as someone they can ask questions of.

2) Google is also heavily weighting profiles and participation, so if someone is lagging in organic (unpaid) Google listings for their product/service, it’s an opportunity to move up the rankings.

3) Hangouts are video opportunities to hold mini-webinars to demo products or services. They’re free of charge, and no doubt you’ll soon be able to record your hangout and be able to upload them to (and refer back to them on) YouTube.

Examples: See Daniel Gordon and Samuel Gordon Jewelers for a great example of someone who is using Google+ effectively.

How to use Google+ For Small Business

Start by having all your key employees sign up for a personal account, and complete their profiles with photos, links to your online properties, and smiling photos. People love doing business with people. You can do this at http://plus.google.com

Share some relevant industry information – each person who has a Google+ account should now begin sharing some relevant information about your business’ industry. This should not be spammy, but instead information that would be of interest to people who do business with your business.

Share some relevant company information – If you have any great articles, now is a good time to share them. Just a few, not EVERYTHING you’ve ever posted.

After a few days, and at least 3 or 4 Google+ posts, you’re ready to create your business page.

Pick 1 person, and have her set up a Google+ business page. It’s as simple as clicking on this graphic in the right hand side of their Google+ profile.

For a complete profile, and to get the best results, she will need the company URL and a nice version of your corporate logo.

Publish the new business page on her Google+ profile (it’s an option at the end of the setup) and have everyone else who has Google+ share it with their followers.

Share a little bit here and a little bit there, measuring your time and seeing what happens with your investment. 30-90 minutes a week is all the time I’d invest right now.

For more ideas and information about using Google+ for your business, circle me on Google+, read What Can Google+ Do For Your Business over at Business on Main or pick up a copy of Chris Brogan’s Google+ for Business.

YOUR TURN: Is YOUR business using Google+ yet? If yes, please leave your businesses Google+ page in your comment. If you’re not, why not?

UPDATE: Google just updated their social search to make Google+ content even MORE relevant. Read about the Search Plus Your World update on the Official Google Blog.

Disclaimer: My blog is a part of an online influencer network for Business on Main. I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis.

If you’re online more than a little, it’s important to understand who is talking about you, and what they are saying. It’s also important to understand that whatever YOU say online will be there to infinity and beyond (or at least as long as Google has a cache).

And to dispel a myth, even if you’re not a celebrity, it’s important to know WHO is talking about you, just in case they say something nice, so you can thank them, or in case they say something bad, so you can do damage control.

So how do you find out who is talking about you, linking to you, and mentioning you on their website?

Google Alerts – Sign up for real-time alerts (via RSS or e-mail) anytime anyone mentions your name (I do last name but I am unique) or your website (use the WWW and without) or your personal mantra. It helps you find cool things like this mention of me on the Financial Times website.

Twitter Search – This is helpful for seeing who mentions you username or topics you’re interested in. I put in the search and subscribe via RSS but you can just keep coming back to it if you like.

BackTweets – This tool translates all the short URLs to your URL and helps you understand who shared your links in their Tweets. I like that you can get these via e-mail at the end of each day, so I can see who might be talking about my writing.

Do you have a favorite way to find out who is talking about you and your work?

Buy a copy of this fun onesy here.