Google Helpouts – Trying New Things

Google Helpouts – Trying New Things

Have you bumped into Google’s new Helpouts? It’s a place where you can get “Real help from real people in real time”.  I bumped into it when investigating a Teaching English as a Foreign Language concept for a client. I signed up and added a listing. Featuring my Tap the Hidden Job Market content. They gave me a button:

So what are Helpouts? I don’t know much about it yet but I see a few things to note. First, there aren’t many big brands on Helpouts yet. The idea of a one-to-one education or advice webinar is probably just outside the range of most brand managers, but I’d suspect we’ll see some experiments first, then a process, then an adoption by some forward thinking brands.

Second, the advice on how to promote Helpouts from the early adopters tends to run towards the quantity over quality approach. I don’t know if that’s because they’re having an issue building value in the session or if the audience isn’t interested in payment. My guess is that if you’re not bringing an audience to the Helpout, it’s going to be difficult to be an overnight success. So there are a lot of “freebies” out there.

To promote the Helpouts, they’re giving $25 promo codes out. To unlock my personal referral code I need to give a Helpout, so look for a code you can use to come out in the newsletter at some point in the future. (it can be used for any Helpout – not just TAP)

Good stuff.