Our Google My Business Event

We had our very own Google My Business event today, after much discussion and planning. We held it at the local Egg & I restaurant’s meeting room and we had plenty of Google swag for everyone, including T-shirts, carry bags, pens and sticky-notepads. While we initially targeted the town of Cedar Park, TX, just northwest of Austin, for which we are the Google Local Search partner, we invited people from all over the Austin area to attend, especially since the things they need to do as local businesses is the same, regardless of location.

Terri led off the morning with a presentation about Local Search, “Promoting Your Business With Local Search”, containing specific activities that local business can and should do to get themselves in Google as well as Google Maps and Apple Maps. As more people use mobile devices as their primary Internet access devices, it’s so important that local businesses be findable when folks are looking for them. After Terri, Scott gave a talk about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for local business.

Lastly, Ramin of Optictour talked about Google Business View, which allows anyone to virtually enter a business and look around the interior. It’s fun, wonderfully visual and easy to see how it can be very useful, especially for retail business. Finally, we drew business cards for door prizes, which included free breakfasts, free Local Search consulting by us (a $500) value, and $50-off coupons for Optictour photography. Here’s a picture of the event, with Terri near the screen in her red “Let’s Put Our Cities On The Map” t-shirt and our very own Kirshan Murphy, nearer the camera in the same red shirt.