If you already market your business with videos then you know how important it is to make use of mobile devices. A relatively new player to the video scene is Google+ Hangouts on Air. Harnessing traffic from YouTube can really help your business sky rocket.

When Google introduced their Google+ site they wanted to get a foothold in the already booming social media arena. By introducing Hangouts on Air Google has improved this foothold and is making great use of YouTube.
For those of you who aren’t sure what a Hangout on Air is, it is best described as a video conferencing method. Similar to a webinar but without the costs involved.

In order to use Hangouts you need to have a Google account. You can simply create a Gmail account or sign up for Google+, this way you will have the best of both worlds.

Hangouts on Air allow up to 10 people to participate live during the event. So you can invite 9 guests to participate. You don’t have to invite guests and can run a solo Hangout and use it as a tutorial or review video.

Once your Hangout is finished it automatically gets uploaded to your YouTube account. This relieves any headaches for people concerned with how to get a video on to YouTube in the first place.

In order for this to happen your Google+ and YouTube account are synched when you first try to start a Hangout. This is a very simple process and takes only a few minutes to complete.

While Hangouts on Air are well known for being used as live or streaming events, you don’t have to hold the event live. You can run your Hangout with your guests and then publicize your URL afterwards. This allows you to edit your video if necessary and add opening and closing credits if you wish.

Many companies are jumping on board with using Hangouts as a promotional method. Hangouts can be used to run promotions, showcase your products and services and even to host your customer service department.
Remember too that you always want to embed your video URL into your website for additional SEO benefits. Inside YouTube you can create various Playlists to keep your Hangouts organized.

There are plenty of benefits for adding Hangouts into your marketing efforts, if you haven’t already started using them.

Once you have learned the ropes, running a Google+ Hangout on Air is not that difficult. It can actually be a ton of fun and Hangouts allow you to get really creative. If you have any type of creative streak in you, you are just going to love using them for your business.

One aspect of Hangouts on Air is that they can be run as a live event. In fact you can create an Event inside your Google+ account and promote it as a Hangout on Air. While you can only have 10 people on a Hangout you can invite a lot more to view live on YouTube.

This live aspect is perfect for several business applications including:

• Concerts
• Cooking shows
• Product demonstrations
• Live Q&A sessions
• Interviews
• Press Releases

Adding in that ‘live’ aspect really allows your audience to be interactive and can really increase the number of people who attend your Hangout. This has been done successfully by many large corporations and singers. Taylor Swift held a live press release conference via a Hangout with great success.

The above list should provide you with a number of great ideas that you could incorporate into your business. Brick and mortar businesses can use this to showcase their products with How To type Hangouts. Can you image a DIY store creating tutorials on how to cut your ceramic tile or how to fix a leaky toilet?
As well as providing instruction you can recommend tools and other items from your store. This is a great way to help your customers and a way to pre-sell them.

Think about how you could incorporate this for a new product release. You could preview it in a Hangout and even offer discount coupons for people who place an order early. Then you could invite your local reporter and do a local press release or interview with them.

The ideas for using Hangouts on Air are almost endless. The more you use them the more ideas you are likely to generate.

Other ideas include things like staff meetings, sales team meet ups, connecting with a satellite office, talking with potential employees or using for customer service and technical support.

Incorporating your customers and clients into your business is the perfect way to brand your business and get your business name out in the community.

Did you know that you can announce your Event as a Hangout on Google+? This applies only to brand new Events which you create and not ones that you already have listed.

When setting up your Event you need to go into the Advanced settings and click the box that says make this a Hangout on Air. Simple enough and this now provides you with the opportunity to hold a Live Event.

After you have created your Event you want to actively promote it on your Google+ page as well as other social sites. This way you can create a buzz leading up to your event and attract more guests.

This method could be used effectively for many different aspects of your business. Why not use an Event on Google+ as a way to showcase your business by holding a fundraiser for a local charity or organization. This would be a great way to get your name well known in your local community.

Other ideas for using Events and Hangouts would be to create a weekly type of show. This would vary depending upon your business but could include things like:

• Weekly cooking show
• Weekly product reviews
• Guest of the Week
• Overview of what happened this week in your business
• Weekly roundup of news on all your favorite social sites
• Special offer of the week and more…

Really the ideas are almost limitless of how you can use Hangouts in your business. Think of ways you can highlight certain areas of your business including your products, your customer service and your tech support. Then see if you can highlight how these things are run in your business by using Events and Hangouts.

If you are still stuck with what type of Event to create then check out some of the past events that have happened in your stream. Don’t forget to use the Find More Events tab to see what events are coming up.
Many business owners like to create things like Awareness Days. If this is applicable to your business you could use upcoming awareness days to help brand your company. This method would work well for a health based company as you could help bring awareness to things like Breast cancer month and other health related days.

Using Events and Hangouts together can really help brand your business and bring potential new customers and clients to you. So what are you waiting for? Create an event today!

With so many businesses online today it is easy to not even know who is running the company. Let alone knowing what the business looks like or how your products are made or distributed.

If this applies to your business then why not open up your online business to the public by using Hangouts on Air? A Hangout is a way to connect with your customers regardless of their location. You can run your Hangout live or pre-record one and then share the link to it afterwards.

So how do you expose your business on a Hangout?

Well first of all you are going to conduct a tour of your business. Show customers and potential customers what you company looks like behind your website. What you are going to do is draw back your curtains and expose how you do things behind the scenes.

This is perfect for a product based business. You can show the manufacturing process, the packaging process and the shipping process of your products. Customers enjoy knowing how their product was made and delivered to them.

The major benefit of exposing your business is that you are putting a face to your business. Again customers love to know who is running the business behind their favorite products.

Using this technique can help boost your brand and your sales. Plus you are not hiding anything and customers will trust and like you even more.

You may even decide to do more than one Hangout behind the scenes of your company. You could run this as an open house event or for announcing a new product release.

If you decide to run a Hangout on Air then test your equipment ahead of time to ensure things run smoothly. You may even want to create an announcement slide that counts down the time until you draw back the curtains.

Not many companies are doing this at the moment so if you act quickly, you can be one of the first to run this type of Hangout. Expose your business and ‘show’ your customers what goes on behind the scenes.

By putting a face to your company you will be connecting in a new way with potential and current customers. You will build yourself a solid reputation and enhance your brand and your reliability tenfold.

Gmail has recently gone through many changes including changing the way their tabs displayed emails. Did you know that you can run a Hangout from within your Gmail account? Google Chat has disappeared and you can now replace this by making a video call or by having a group message chat.

To use your Gmail account for a Hangout you have to install a simple plugin. Just download it and follow the instructions. It is really easy and installs within minutes.

When you are ready to make a video call simply scroll down the left hand side of your account where your photo is. Next to that you will see a small movie camera icon. Click on that to start your video call.
When your plugin is activated and you are online you will notice that the icon turns green. Click on the drop down arrow to see all the available settings and options. To change any of these options just click on the tab and make the appropriate changes.

The nice thing about running a Message Hangout is that you can invite up to 100 people. With a Hangout on Air only 10 people can participate live, though you can invite more to watch the Hangout.

The good thing about starting your Hangout in Gmail is that your conversation will follow you across all of your devices. So if you are out when the Hangout starts you can join in on your iPhone or Android. Then when you get home you can switch to your computer, laptop or tablet without missing a beat.

With any type of change it does take a little getting used to. But when you see how easy and versatile Gmail and Google+ are you will be glad that you are using them.

Think about how easy it will be to quickly connect with a sales team member out in the field. Or you can call a staff meeting at any time, just by sending out invitations to your staff members on Gmail.

Many businesses are switching their email programs to Gmail because of all the new features and the functionality of it. Gmail makes it so easy to connect with all of your employees or colleagues regardless of their location. Plus with so many people telecommuting using Hangouts is a great way to stay connected to the office.

You have probably heard about Google+ Hangouts but are feeling a little intimidated on using them. Not to worry many people have the same fears and using Hangouts is not that difficult. The worst part is just getting started.

To get started with Google+ Hangouts you will want to create a Google+ account. This is quick and simple to use and if you have a Gmail account the same details and photo are used.

When you invite people to your Hangout they will receive an email notification that your Hangout is about to start. If they don’t have an account they will receive instructions on how to set one up.

There are several ways to hold a Hangout and one of the best ways is to start with a message Hangout. This can be done right inside your Gmail account and is the same has sharing text messages. The only difference is that you can invite up to 100 of your friends to your Hangout and you can all join in on the conversation.

Even if your guests aren’t able to attend your Hangout they can still join in the conversation at a later date. The great thing about Hangouts is that they are accessible on all platforms and that your conversation follows you. So if you start chatting on your iPhone and end up at home on your computer you can easily continue where you left off.

In order to use Hangouts from inside your Gmail account you will need to download and install a plugin. Just follow the directions and you are literally done within a couple of seconds. If you use Google Chrome then download the Google+ Hangouts extension.

After installation you will be directed to synch your Google+ account with your YouTube account, again a simple process. You need to complete this step so that your Hangouts on Air are automatically uploaded to your YouTube account.

This step eliminates the need for editing and adding a sound track to your videos and then manually uploading them to your YouTube account. Just make sure you add a good description to your video along with any relevant keywords. Depending on your purpose with your Hangout video you may want to create specific playlists for them.

Take the time today and learn just how to use Google+ Hangouts and you will be on your way to generating more exposure for your business.

There are two basic ways you can run your Google+ Hangout. The first way is from within your Google+ account. You simply click on Hangouts and then click on the tab that says Start a Hangout. The second way is from your Google+ Page. Just navigate to your page and then click on the green icon that says Start a Video Call.

There is a difference between the two and that is starting a Hangout from your page only allows you to do a video call. Message type Hangouts can be started from within your Gmail account.

It is important to run a well organized Hangout and to do this you want to plan in advance. Take the following tips into consideration:

• Cover only one topic per Hangout
• Decide if you want to invite guests to participate Live or not
• Help guests test the Hangout environment from their end
• Test your equipment in advance to make sure it is working correctly
• If sharing slides or documents prepare these in advance and test them out

As the organizer of the Hangout you have the ability to mute people if necessary. You simply click on their image and mute and unmute as required.

When running your Hangout the main speaker is always featured in the top half of the screen. Other participants are featured in smaller icons in the lower section of the screen. As the speaker changes the screen flips to showcase the current speaker.

If your Hangout is live remember you do have the ability to edit out any trouble spots afterwards. Plus everyone knows that live events don’t always go as planned. So if a mishap occurs take it in stride and fix it later on.

Always stay focused on your main topic and don’t cover too much information in your Hangout. Instead it is better to run several Hangouts. This way you won’t overwhelm your viewers!

Hangouts can be long but bear in mind that some people may not want to watch a long replay video. This is why some top companies edit their videos and remove any lulls or unnecessary information. Short and sweet is the way to go with Hangouts on Air.

By taking the time to plan out your Hangout you can be assured that it will run smoothly. Edit it if needed and then make your URL public or private as you wish.

One good thing about using Google+ Hangouts is that they don’t have any advertising banners attached to them. This allows your guests to directly focus on what you are saying during your Hangout.

What some smart companies have been doing is finding ways that they can still generate some form of advertising revenue from their Hangouts. Have you thought about connecting with sponsors?

Let’s look at an example of this. Say you run a beauty type of website you could run a Hangout that focuses on hair care or styling. Then during the Hangout you use certain brands of products. The manufacturer of this product would be your sponsor.

This could potentially work extremely well for established businesses who have conducted several Hangouts. If you can show your potential sponsor that you can attract a few hundred guests, they will be more willing to jump on board as a sponsor.

What large company wouldn’t jump at the chance of being a featured product in a 10 or 15 minute Hangout Commercial?

If you are just starting with Hangouts then use this idea as a goal which you would like to achieve. As soon as you can attract a good number of guests start offering sponsor time on your website.

The sponsor will also help you advertise your Hangout and bring you both more potential customers. Both parties are using the other to highlight a great media opportunity.

Another way to get advertising for your Hangout is by interviewing high profile people. This could be an athlete, a prominent business person in your community or niche. People love to ask celebrities live questions and if you can find someone to be a guest on your Hangout your views will dramatically increase.
This method has been done by several companies including the New York Times when they invited Olympic athletes to attend their Hangout. Guests were allowed to ask questions and the event attracted a ton of people all over the world.

Use this same scenario to announce a new product or service and publicize it as a Press Release event or conference. Promote this to your local newspapers and TV stations and invite reporters to come on air with you and ask questions.

There are many different ways that you can advertise with Hangouts. You can offer to be a sponsor or you can promote your Hangout as a publicity event.

Have you considered running webinars on a regular basis, but found the cost to be too intimidating? The cost is a huge issue when it comes to wanting to incorporate webinars into your business. On the upside though, many of these platforms do allow you to invite around 500 people and sometimes more to your event.
While this might be great for large companies and established marketers there is another solution for those just starting out. Welcome to Google+ Hangouts on Air.

Hangouts on Air allow you to hold live webinar type events that can be viewed by the public. On the actual live Hangout you can invite up to 9 guests. Each person is depicted in a small window on the lower half of the Hangout. The main speaker is always shown in the main area of the screen. As a new person begins talking the screen will flip to this person. That’s a really neat feature of Hangouts.

In order for people to attend they need to be connected via their own Google+ account. When your invitations are sent, anyone without an account will be directed to sign up for one.

Don’t let the number of invited guests stop you from using Hangouts on Air as your webinar solution. If you plan on running a live webinar simply invite others to view from their account or channel. Having guests is great if you want to add interaction to your webinar or hold a question and answer type of event.

There are many different ways to use Hangouts on Air for your business. Run small webinar events to demonstrate products or to provide your viewers with how to instructions on using your products.

After your Hangout session is uploaded to YouTube you can use this video for many different purposes. You can use your videos to promote your company, to use as a lead generation method or to add to your main website.

For the small business owner who wants to start offering webinars using Google+ Hangouts on Air is a great cost effective solution. It is intimate enough that you won’t feel nervous about hosting a webinar and your invited guests can help provide interaction and feedback.

If you have been sitting on the sidelines about using Google+ and Hangouts then stop wondering and start doing them. YouTube gets a ton of traffic each day and as a smart business owner you definitely want to tap into this.

Many people have all types of fears when it comes to promoting themselves publicly, are you one of these people? This is especially true when it comes to creating any type of video based product. With the daily increase in popularity of Google+ Hangouts, are you going to allow your fears ruin new forms of exposure for your business?

One of the biggest fears when it comes to creating a video is putting your face ‘out there’. When you do this you have no-one to hide behind. Your face is on camera for all to see.

The next fear or challenge is often part of the creation process of the video itself. You may not be sure how to add your voice to the video or add a music track. Then there is the process of uploading the video to YouTube. This just seems so overwhelming that you put video creation on the back burner.

So how do you get around these fears? Well obviously the best way is to just get out there and do it!
Actually creating a video today has been made easier by Google+ Hangouts. Once you have run your Hangout it gets uploaded to YouTube automatically. All you have to do is add a description and make the link private or public.

Right there the actual creation process has been taken care of. Now you have to deal with the fear of putting your face on camera.

The great thing about using Hangouts on Air is that you can run your Hangout with no guests! This is perfect for the beginner to practice talking to a camera, sharing files from your screen and just getting comfortable with the process.

Why not set up Google+ Hangouts and then hit that Start a Hangout button and enter the room? Remember no-one is going to see you until you hit that start a broadcast button.

After entering the room you can view your control button and checkout some of the great fun features. Did you know that you can add funny hats to your guests?

Just going through the process allows you to become familiar with how a Hangout works. Then simply start your Hangout and start chatting as though you were chatting with your friends.

Even though the video will be uploaded to YouTube, you can simply delete it or make the URL private. This way no-one will see it until you are ready and it’s a great way to look back on how worried you were about running a Hangout.