Additional notes

Glenn and Coryon Redd were in the studio. Paul called in.

You can find Coryon at coryon.com.
Phone: 530-277-2940
His company:
– Builds websites
– Does internet marketing
– Does strategic planning
– Works to build businesses

Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart.
– They're tagged with #Zentech.
– When what's said is unclear to me (or I'm unfamiliar with a topic) I tend to quote (" ") verbatim.
– Editor's comments are delimited by < >

 

The show was mostly about Google, Google Plus, Google Hangouts and how to promote your business using these tools.

This show was broadcast at Google Plus Hangouts on Air.

Coryon explained Hangouts as a place to have a conversation with multiple people using your computer, similar to using Skype.
– You can share media (a picture, video, etc.) with the other people.
– The "on Air" is a recent addition that adds more features — like posting a recording of the meeting to Youtube afterward.
– You can promote your business using Google Hangouts by making a short video (a short "Google Hangout") and it will end up on Youtube for your customers to see.

The video of this particular show will become available after the broadcast. This is trial run of Hangouts. It's not certain that future shows will be on Google Hangouts. But if this format is adopted, future shows will also be available as videos.

Currently, this broadcast is being recorded by Coryon's computer. Glenn may sound a little weak in the recording of today's show because he was not speaking directly into Coryon's microphone. The KVMR has yet to work out how to get the audio from the studio's control board to the recording computer.

Some other features of Google Hangouts:
– You can open it to the public or keep it private just for certain participants.
– It saves the video to Youtube, but first "you need to link it to your Youtube channel".

Setting your Google Plus options is easy.
– If you are logged in to Gmail, for example. in the upper right corner is your user name with a plus next to it; click it to get to Google Plus.
– When you're in Google Plus, there is a menu on the left where it says "Home" (or its icon). Hover your mouse over it and you'll get a menu of features available in Google Plus. In particular, you'll find "Events" and "Hangouts", which are very similar.

To start a Hangout on Air, click on Hangouts and at the top you'll find "Hangouts on Air". Click on "Start a Hangout on Air". You can start the Hangout immediately or later using the 2 options: "Now" & "Later". You'll also give it a name and a brief description. If you selected "Later", you can schedule a time & duration. If it's a private Hangout, you then invite other Google Plus users: click the icon of a person next to the plus sign.

When you're first setting things up it will try to connect your Google Plus account with your Youtube account and will ask to verify your identity. Glenn had some trouble getting verified; it took a couple of tries. Coryon said he's had similar experiences when setting up other Google services, sometimes it just doesn't proceed. He found that refreshing or reloading the page solved the problem.

Coryon facilitates a group called Nevada City Online, and using Google Hangouts it's become one of the biggest business groups in Nevada County.

Paul asked if remote desktop control is one of the features of Hangouts. Coryon said it is but he hasn't tried it yet. His preferred tool for online screen sharing and collaboration is join.me. Glenn thought that join.me will only share screens but not do remote control, but Coryon said remote control is possible if you grant permission to the other user. Paul mentioned that Teamviewer is a similar tool.

To do remote control, a small bit of code needs to be downloaded: a plugin or extension — that's best NOT used with Internet Explorer. Apparently, the Microsoft browser doesn't get along well with Google services: it will either fail completely or work inconsistently. Coryon's prefers to use Chrome — a "fast, nifty, easy-to-use browser". Glenn said he had trouble installing the Google Plus add-on into Firefox and will have to go back and look at it again.

The Google services mentioned so far are free, Coryon said, but Google uses the 'freemium' model which means additional features can come at a price — e.g. though Gmail is free, if you want more storage capacity, you pay for it.

Coryon took a moment to give out the Hangout link for this broadcast: goo.gl/FgmfbL

Coryon talked about link shorteners:
– Go to goo.gl to shorten a long URL. As a bonus, it will also keep usage statistics like how many people used that particular URL.
– The usage statistics are handy for your business. Use different shortened links in various paid ads to see which ads or promotions generate the most traffic to your website.
– Other shorteners: bit.ly & tinyurl.com.
<Google's URL shortener can generate QR codes too>

Coryon noted that we are often asked to trade much of our privacy for the use of free tools, features and applications that haven't been available until recently. He seems to be ok with giving up some privacy. The information Google collects about us is sold to advertisers, helps Google pay it's bills and keeps many services free. Google even reads our emails, in an automated way, to bring us targeted advertising.

Coryon said that, over the years, Google has worked on many projects, some of which succeeded and others failed — no more Google Buzz and Reader. It's now working on a charging network for electric cars that can also draw power from the cars during peak electricity usage hours as well as charge the cars during low usage hours. In effect, the cars become a gigantic, dispersed battery.

Paul asked Coryon what he thinks about Google's "don't be evil" policy, and he said he's not seen anything overtly evil in what Google has been doing, but, on the other hand, they do sometimes push the limit.

Other features in Hangouts:
– Q&A is where people can ask questions before and during a Hangout.
– The question can be highlighted while it's being answered so people can stay on topic.

Coryon talked more about the marketing uses of Hangouts. His business is batteries4less.com. He sells batteries for cell phones laptops, cameras, etc. and people often have questions for him. So, he started a series on his Google Plus page called Battery Buzz to provide answers. The resulting videos are saved and they quickly gain a high ranking in Google search results.
<I'm not completely sure this is right, but try the following links for Battery Buzz:
http://blog.batteries4less.com/
http://blog.batteries4less.com/battery-buzz-live>

Glenn thanked supporters of KVMR. If you'd like to become a supporter, please visit KVMR.

Katherine called asked for info on where to repair the glass in a cell phone.
– Send an email to zen at kvmr dot org and you'll get a reply with references.
– Coryon said there's a great new local shop cellguru.com. It's run by Jeffrey Hein, an occasional cohost here on Zentech. <I think he misspoke the URL, I came up with www.thecellphoneguru.com>

John called. He tried to get to the Zentech Hangouts page. But when he search for it he got about a hundred results for Zentech. Which is the correct one?
– Try searching for the words: zen tech kvmr. That should give just one result.
– Coryon suggest the guys get a custom URL for the Zentech Hangouts.

Paul asked if it matters for a business to have it's own domain name (widgets.com instead of something like widget.wordpress.com).
– Coryon thinks it does matter. It promotes your brand and it looks much more professional.
– You own domain name is fairly inexpensive. Godaddy.com (or the perferred — bluehost.com) are under $10 per month. Installing WordPress from wordpress.com is free. It's much cheaper than it was 10 or 15 years ago.

Last update 10:21 PM 4/23/2014