#444 - 8 (Free) Google Services We Use and Recommend

With so many quality, free services available from Google, why don't more businesses use them?

Google services put you right in their spotlight, giving many more reasons to appear at the top of search results. They also make your business more efficient, freeing your up for more important marketing and management priorities.

Here are 8 Google services we recommend and use, plus 'how to do it' articles showing the easiest way to use them. More and more of the Google services are being linked together with Google+ - these short videos show how it works.

Let's get busy on making your business more efficient and well-known:

• Use Google Apps to manage your Email: let's face it, email in most businesses is a mess, and it costs you money in lost sales and slow payments. At Profitable Hospitality we use the Google Apps service and now email is all online, accessibly from anywhere and very easy to search. It still goes out under our email address and the spam filtering is extremely effective. Very highly recommended! Note: this is different to a personal Gmail account, but looks the same and can be accessed from the same place.

• Google+ Local allows your business listing to come up the way you want when a search is done. Otherwise, there will only be minimal data that Google has gathered from yellow pages or other random online sites eg incorrect opening hours or menu information. It's vitally important if you want to stand out on the Maps service. Check it out right here .
• Google Maps: dominates other online competitors - your Google+ Local listing ensures you will be found easily. Plus it adds a stream of services for travellers eg photos and even videos of locations. Their MyMap option is a great way to set up and share a map of popular locations in your area - now you're really influencing what people look for: here's how to Set Up Google Maps to Show Off Your Business .

• Google+ Photos: - food, happy customers, weddings, parties and the location - whatever you want to share. There are so many digital photos stored in your camera, it's time to share them in online albums and slide shows. Google+ Photos is a great option eg here's how you could show off your location or wonderful food. Check out all the Great Ways to Use Photos on Your Website.

• Google Alerts: - set it up with your domain name and business name. Also include your own personal name and others if you want to track them as well. A great service at no cost.

• Google Calendar and Events: Google Calendar is the service to run your diary and share it with others - a centrally run business diary can be subscribed to by managers and team members. Google+ Events are listed through your Google+ business page - dinners, openings, entertainment etc, with lots of options to add photos and booking links.

• Your own YouTube Channel: YouTube offers plenty of laughs, but it's also become a serious educational, recruitment and marketing tool - think 30-second promo (TV commercial length) not 5 minute lecture. Here's the channel for Profitable Hospitality. You have young staff who would LOVE to help with this - Here's How to Set Up a YouTube Channel for Business Promotion!

• Google Drive: for working together on menus, promotion ideas, function package updates or costings - anything where you want to share a word or excel document with others and don't want to be flicking multiple versions back and forth. Here's an example of a costing sheet that could be (securely) shared and worked on by several people.