Have you heard of them? Have you seen them? Google+ Interactive Posts allow you to code content so that you get a direct CTA (call to action) button right in the Google+ content stream. Want signups for email lists? Ask them to subscribe. One click button to go to your list building page. Promoting an event and want one-button signup ease straight from Google+? Yep, Interactive Posts has that covered as well.
The tools shared in +Mike Arnesen's post are really great – but still require a bit of programming know-how.
Of couse the millisecond the ability to craft Interactive Posts was available in Google+ my company incorporated them for our clients. <grin> It's been working like gangbusters so far!
Reshared post from +Mike Arnesen
In my latest blog post at +SwellPath, I not only got to break down a super cool new functionality for Google+, but I released a free tool for composing and pushing out Google+ Interactive Posts on the fly!
Download the +Google+ Interactive Posts Command Center and let me know what you think.
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+Lynette Young I tried it and although it's really cool that it does that, it can also be more hassle than it's worth. The way links display without the added CTA, can be enough to get people to click.
+Scott Wyden Kivowitz my company provides marketing and tech solutions to companies – so it is our Number 1 job to know how this works and make it sing. This isn't going to be something non-biz users care about or implement. I'm the Google+ slinger in the shop, but we have other social and tech powerhouses too.
+Lynette Young totally understand – but from a marketing and a user point of view I see it as more clutter also.
I have been hearing a number of "ordinary users" complaining they feel spammed..and don't seem to understand the concept. A few were wanting to uncircle people who use this..or post something with a button attached.
It isn't always clear where the button will take you and many don't know that this is a Google thing. I think people definitely need a little more education and I do think it should be clearer where the link leads to.
This is pretty cool! I started to use the Google+ commenting for my blog on Blogger which makes the comments pretty interactive. I haven't used it (and not sure it is available) on my WordPress blog yet tho.
+Clare Cosgrove It's my opinion that the "Buy!!!" button is different from the rest, and may be less appreciated. I'll be doing an experiment Friday with the Watch and Listen buttons, but basically, these offer a way to show content with two choices: look at the link, which is an article or description and/or click the button which has an action associated with it. It's a good concept, but we'll see how people feel about it.
+Lynette Young to your question, this post and the download it offers are well done, it's worth a try for anyone interested. I've incorporated interactive post code to do a button with a viewer for Hangouts on Air in a WordPress blog using Thesis theme.
So far I have only seen the buy button attached to Fancy .. but only identifiable by the wee icon..so if you are not familiar with Fancy you have no idea where it is leading you.
I like the idea..simply because we have all seen things posted and thought "where can I get that?" ..but there are a few things wrong with it at the moment. The country of origin is one of them..I think people forget we aren't all in the US. Another reason to make clear the source..
+Clare Cosgrove same with Play (Install button) and even more frustrating. That geo segregation will cause problems.
Hmmmm… I am most definitely going to tinker with this – thanks for sharing!
The milliseconds were originally created by Timestamp. So make sure you give credit where credit is due!
An interesting tool – will tinker with it a bit.
+Joe Ford ?
You're on fire +Diana Studer – looks very useful!