A Hangout On Air Conversation with SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet

There are 28 million small businesses in the US, and small businesses represent almost half of US private-sector jobs. What kind of support and resources does our government provide to make sure these small businesses thrive? Where can we find tips on how to start or grow a business? What funding opportunities are there?

On Wednesday, August 27th, the leader of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the voice of small business in President Obama’s Cabinet, Maria Contreras-Sweet, will join the Google Small Business Community for a Hangout on Air to share tips and insights for small businesses.

Since being appointed by President Obama, Administrator Contreras-Sweet has made a priority to meet and hear from small businesses. On Wednesday, she will answer questions directly from small businesses through Hangouts. Over the past two weeks, thousands of small business owners from all over the US, representing various backgrounds, experiences, and businesses, have submitted questions for the Administrator covering funding for businesses to technology.

Five small business participants will be joining the Hangout on camera along with the Administrator. One of the attendees, Brantley Crowder, is the director of e-commerce for Savannah Bee Company. Savannah Bee Company started in 2002 with a single beehive and a mission to support regional beekeepers by selling their honey and making honey-related health and beauty products. They started delving into digital with their website which launched in 2010 to support their stores in Charleston and Savannah.

The Hangout has participants like David Winslow, writing, “the SBA is beginning to make headway in an effort to lead the Government into a friendlier, more engaging place!”

Join the SBA Administrator tomorrow at 1:30 PM PT / 4:30 PM ET in the Google Small Business Community, a public community, which gives business people direct access to experts and industry leaders like Contreras-Sweet. The event will also be accessible live on the Google+ Your Business YouTube channel, in the event invitation, and the SBA website, and the video will be posted for viewing post-event.

RSVP to view the broadcast and submit your questions for a chance to have them answered live, on-air during the Hangout.

Posted by the Google Small Business Community

Get fresh business feedback with Reviews

When’s the last time you checked out what your customers are saying about your business on the web?

With Google My Business, you can see and respond to reviews from Google users. You’ll also be able to see feedback that customers have left on other websites.

The first step to seeing and responding to reviews is to verify your business.

Once your business is verified, visit the Google My Business dashboard, scroll down, and click Manage Reviews.

For the best experience with reviews:

• Encourage your customers to leave feedback on Google. Reviews on Google can help your business stand out from sites with fewer reviews. 
• Respond to reviews. Your customers will notice that your business values their input and respond with more reviews. 
• Keep it clean. We’ll remove reviews and responses on Google that contain advertising, spam, and other stuff that violates our policies. 

With Reviews, you’ll hear firsthand feedback from the people who matter most to your business: your customers!

See the metrics that matter for your business

With the launch of Google My Business, we’ll be exploring new ways to build a strong online presence for your local business.

For this post, we’ll be focusing on using Google My Business to see how your business performs on the web. Have you ever wondered how many customers search for your business on Google Maps or whether your customers are seeing that photo you uploaded last week?

Google My Business makes it easy to find valuable information about your local business on Google, including:

• The number of times people saw your business information show up on Google Maps, Search and Maps for Mobile 
• The areas from which users have searched for driving directions to your business using Google Maps 
• The number of impressions of your Google+ photos, profile, posts 

To access Insights, open Google My Business, choose the page you’d like to manage, and click View Insights. Insights are another good reason to verify your local business--you won’t be able to see the data without going through that process.

Once you’re there, you’ll see three tabs: Visibility, Engagement, and Audience.

Click Visibility to get numbers on how customers engage with your business on Google--through driving directions, clicks to your website and more.

The charts on the Engagement tab lets you know how your customers interact with your posts. You can even breakdown the information by type of post to see whether your customers respond better to picture or text posts.

Visit the Audience tab to understand the makeup of your Google+ followers, including their age range, country, and gender.

With Insights, you have the tools to watch your local business grow online.