Bank of America's Google+ Page

The bank America loves to hate got another slap in the face, although this time it wasn’t over debit card fees.

Shortly after Google announced that businesses could have a Google+ page, which is the equivalent of a Facebook Business Page, some scallywag jumped Bank of America’s claim and created an unflattering – yet amusing – page.

Funny pictures of former CEO Ken Lewis, a tagline proclaiming that “We took your bailout money and your mortgage rates are going up,” and a post about a company foreclosure party in house #2340087 could be found on the page before it was taken down.

Screen shots of the page showed that it already had 550 followers and 342 +1′s.

Whether you have sympathy for Bank of America or not, you have to admit that whoever did this was pretty damn creative. And sneaky, for apparently they even caught the almighty Google by surprise.

The question needs to be asked, “Why didn’t Bank of America claim their Google+ page as soon as the announcement was made that they were available?” Now I’ll ask you a similar question, “Did you claim your company’s Google+ page yet?”

About a year ago I wrote a post about a friend of mine who found out that the .co variant of their domain name was hijacked by a competitor. Sadly, she wasn’t aware this was happening and after I alerted her of it, a few phone calls to lawyers resolved the issue. But how many sales were lost because of this? It’s pretty easy to be typing in a domain name and accidentally leaving off the “m” in .com. The unscrupulous use this to their advantage, as was done here.

If you’re doing business online, it’s important that you protect your brand by not only registering the different domain name extensions for your business, but claiming your company name in Facebook, Google+, Twitter and other social media sites.

Bank of America isn’t going to suffer any damage due to the bogus Google+ page, but a small business like yours could. Imagine what a disgruntled customer could do if given the opportunity. The time you spend running your business is way too important to be spent running defense because of a simple oversight on your part.

So, did you claim your company’s Google+ page yet?

If you haven’t registered all the available domain name extensions for your business, what are you waiting for? Don’t get caught off guard when you find out that someone is squatting on a domain that is rightfully yours. Network Solutions is offering big savings on domain registrations, click here for the deals.

If your business doesn’t have a custom Facebook Business Page, web.com will build you one for free. Click here to learn more about this promotion.

With the launch of Google+ I got to thinking.

Will this be the Facebook killer that many are waiting for?

Will it leave the social-sphere quicker than a church full of Catholics before the second collection?

Or will it hang around on life support just to piss off Zuckerberg?

I don’t know the answer, but I do know that I’m feeling cluttered.

Let’s take a look at my social meanderings:

Twitter – Like many I’ve been there, done that and have moved on. The 140-character universe quickly turned into a dumping ground full of get-rich-quick tweets, religious quotations, celebrity droppings and other assorted dung. It’s still popular and the folks in charge keep trying to make it more attractive, but isn’t it all just like putting lipstick on Sarah Palin?

Foursquare – My mayorships are plenty, but my reign is coming to an end. Foursquare was the hip way to “check-in” to your favorite places, earn useless badges, and become top-dog at places you frequent the most. The aforementioned Facebook, more or less knocked these guys down a peg by releasing their own version of the “check-in” which I quickly moved over to.

Classmates.com – That was so 1999. Do I really want to connect with people I haven’t seen, or care to see, since high school and college? Nope. Next!

Google Buzz – The big G’s first attempt at social networking. I never got into it, and apparently it wasn’t just me. Those that remember the Buzz recall it for being somewhat of a failure.

LinkedIn – Who doesn’t have a LinkedIn profile? Guess you have to if you’re among the ranks of the employed and want to show off all your fancy degrees and letters after your name which don’t amount to a whole heck-of-a-lot. I have a LinkedIn profile. I’m connected to a bunch of people I don’t even know and log-in about once a month. This attempt at social networking is more about job hunting. If I want to be bored I’ll watch a golf game on TV or log on to LinkedIn.

MySpace – Ok, I admit it. I was on MySpace once or twice. Maybe I’m too old. Maybe I’m just not hip. I didn’t get it years ago, and I still don’t get it today. Unless I’m 16, like the singer Pink and have more holes in my body than nature intended, this ain’t for me.

So what about Facebook? To me, Facebook is to social media as Amazon.com is to eCommerce. When the dust settles and the only two living things left on planet Earth are Cher and a cockroach, Facebook and Amazon.com will be there for them.

Google+ may get some adoption, but Facebook users aren’t going to jump ship. As humans we tend to stick with things we’re comfortable with. Facebook is like a hot bowl of chicken soup Mrs. Goldberg dropped off when she heard I was sick. Google+ is like horrible tasting cough syrup the doctor sent over.

I was excited to get a Google+ invite, but after a few days of poking and prodding, I’m sticking with what I like and know best. After all, when I want to thank Mrs. Goldberg for the soup, chances are she’s on Facebook.

I’m at Starbucks on 45th Street.

I’m at McDonalds on Main Avenue.

I’m at the Rental Car Center at LAX.

These are examples of Tweets and Facebook posts from dedicated users who like to share their every second of being with their friends and fans.

I used to be one of them. That was until a colleague said to me one day, “you’re crazy for letting everyone know where you are, what if someone…” that’s when I stopped her. I didn’t want to hear how the sentence finished, but I got the point.

I used BrightKite on my iPhone to “check-in” at different locations and my “check-in” would then be plastered on my Twitter and Facebook pages. The purpose was to alert others in my circle of friends where I was in an attempt to meet up or meet new friends. After all, this is what the “social” in social media is all about, right?

Jeff Stolarcyk, a member of the Solid Cactus Internet Marketing team did a blog post about a relative newcomer on the social media scene, foursquare.com. Foursquare is one of these “check-in” type sites which bills itself as “a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide and a game that rewards you for doing interesting things.” Quite a concept if you understand it, right?

In a nut-shell, you load foursquare on your phone, you check-in at these various locations, meet friends and fellow foursquare-ers, and climb the social media ladder in foursquare as you visit new places or return to ones previously visited. An interesting and fun concept. If you’re a business owner, you can offer incentives for foursquare users to visit your location and capitalize on this new and emerging market segment.

While those of us who are into this kind of stuff become more and more connected, privacy becomes an issue. If you don’t mind letting people know that you’re at Mel’s Diner five nights a week for dinner, go for it. If you’re somewhat hesitant about sharing your location with your friends, you can always either not “check-in” or do so in “stealth mode.” Then if you’re completely freaked out by the openness of social media, this stuff just isn’t for you.

It’s interesting to see just how transparent people are willing to let their lives become. I can see some things happening that could prove to be interesting:

Diane: Hey Jack, what did you do last night?

Jack: Oh, nothing. I sat at home and watched “Dancing with the Stars”.

Diane: Really? Then why did your Facebook page say you were at the night club?

Jack: Um, yeah, well. Gotta go!

Social media is changing the way we go about our lives, we’re becoming more interactive. Whether that’s good or bad is yet to be determined, but one thing is for sure, as we open our every move to more and more eyes, we have to be more and more cautious about our surroundings.

One of my roles as a marketing consultant for Solid Cactus, is to organize an event called Solid Cactus eCommerce Boot Camp. These three day events held at various times throughout the year are a three-day gathering of eCommerce store owners from around the country. Informational sessions are put on by Solid Cactus staffers and guests and are held throughout the day. Evenings are set aside for networking opportunities with fellow entrepreneurs.

The latest Boot Camp wrapped up last night and marks the seventh such event I had the pleasure of putting together. I always enjoy meeting with other eCommerce store owners to learn about their business, what they’re doing to drive sales and most importantly, how they’re combating a challenging economy. As we move into the busiest time of the year for most merchants, the general feeling is that of uncertainty. Uncertainty about whether or not Christmas 2009 will be better or worse than Christmas 2008. Personally, I feel it’s going to be worse.

If you listen to the talking heads on television every night, they make you feel like the economy is on an upswing. Yet at the same time they report that the unemployment rate is nearing 10% as more and more people are laid off. With 10% of the working class not getting a paycheck every week, spending just isn’t happening. Store owners I talked to are feeling the effects; some more than others.

Knowing that store owners need to be cautious in what they spend to attract business this season, I tailored most of the sessions at this latest Boot Camp on free and cost effective ways to get customers. Social Media, SEO, effective Internet Marketing and features designed to convert were the hot topics.

One thing that I did notice was that many store owners have not fully embraced the power of Social Media. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are free ways for business owners to capture customers, but few of the attendees are actually using them to their full potential. Some expressed a lack of time or an inability to gauge Social Media’s ROI as reasons for not exploiting these means of advertising. No matter what your opinion or reasons for not taking advantage of Social Media are, the fact that you should be using them to get your message out is paramount.

I always enjoy sitting in on the Boot Camp presentations because I always learn something new. While I try to keep up on trends, there’s always something that I missed! I enjoy listening to the presenters even if it’s on a topic I’m very familiar with because I could always stand to learn just a little bit more or get a refresher on the topic.

We had a great group of attendees this time around and a nice mix of new and seasoned eCommerce store owners. This always makes for a great Boot Camp as the pros tend to help the newbies and the newbies walk away with a lot of great information to help them be on their way to online success.

While this Boot Camp may be behind me for now, I’ve already started working on the next one!

Special thanks to The Cafe @ Pic-a-Deli, Pazzo Restaurant and The Woodlands Inn & Resort.

For those who were unable to attend, here are some photos from the event: