You asked for it, and now it’s finally here – the Google +1 button on your PhotoShelter website! We’re very excited to offer this hot new social sharing tool. Check out how it looks on PhotoShelter member Shane Srogi‘s website below.

The +1 button, in Google’s words, is a way to give your “public stamp of approval”. Meaning that the next time your friends or contacts search for something on Google, they could see your +1 in results. It’s a way for you to endorse a website, image, blog post, or anything else that has the +1 social sharing feature.

Google is rapidly moving to incorporate “socialness” into its algorithm so that your search results are influenced by your friends’ recommendations. You can already see the impact if you search while logged into your Google account.

For example, my search for “digital point and shoot cameras” yields the PhotoShelter blog post, “15 Digital Point-and-Shoot Cameras Used By Pro Photographers“, which was shared by Allen – who I’m connected to on Google+.

Once you’ve +1′d something, you can see a running list in your Google+ profile.

Because Allen has made his +1 list public, I can see everything that he has ever +1′d.

Did we mention that adding the +1 button to your PhotoShelter website is really easy? Simply log into your PhotoShelter account, and navigate to:

1. My Website, then
2. Website Pages, then
3. Gallery Display
4. Here you’ll see several check-boxes, one of which says “Post to Social Networks”. If you choose to check this box, then all social sharing buttons will appear on your PhotoShelter website (Email to a friend, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and now Google+)

Keep in mind that the +1 button differs from the other social sharing tools on your PhotoShelter site in that it’s purely an endorsement. This means that clicking the +1 button on your website doesn’t share your images with Google – it simply shows that you endorse it, and the link will appear in your Google+ profile’s +1 list (which remains private to you until you select to publicly share it with your network).

Want to know more about Google+ and how you can use it to market your photography business? Be on the lookout for The Photographer’s Social Media Handbook, due out in January. In the meantime, get the latest news by adding the PhotoShelter Google+ Page to your circles today.

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