Google+ (or G+) has been quite late to join the social media marketing party, so a lot of small business owners still view it with suspicion - should they or should they not engage with it? Is it worth spending extra time on social media marketing, by adding another tool to manage? According to Social Media Examiner's 2014 Report, while 54% of marketers are using Google+, 65% want to learn more about it and 61% plan on increasing Google+ activities in 2014.
But Google+ is not just another social media site, it works as a social glue that ties the internet together. Read on to find out if it's worth your while in marketing!
By February 2014, G+ has already 359 million active users, it occupies 65% of business/personal search results, it is linked to Gmail, which also has more than 4 Million users, it is also linked to YouTube, which has 800 Million visitors per month, and to Google mobile offering over 1 Million Android devices activated daily.
Google+ is integrated into all Google products and applications: Google Search, Gmail, Google Apps, YouTube, Android, Google Play Store, Google Translate, Google Drive, Analytics, AdWords, Maps, Places, Webmaster Tools, Google News, Images, and so much more. If you use Google tools for your business, in fact it's quite difficult to avoid creating a Google+ profile in the process for your user identity.
However as we all know, having a profile on social media and actually using it effectively for marketing - are two different things. And what's more, with Google+ you can not only have a personal profile, but a business page as well - a bit like Facebook.
So let's look at why and how you can use Google+ as part of your digital marketing strategy.
Google+ benefits for business marketing:
- There is a growing G+ community - with more and more users getting on board. However at the moment it's not as busy or hard to promote as Facebook (especially with their new algorithm).
- It has a clean and user-friendly interface, it's media (image and video) friendly, so your content can be made visual and stand out more.
- Google Products/Service Integration - you can access everything with your single Google+ account.
- With changing rules of SEO - profiles, posts and communities are indexed and searchable, so your activity on Google+ has a direct impact on your SEO results.
Google rates your posts based on the interactions they receive. These can come in 4 different ways:
- +1 'ing a post (similar to a Facebook Like)
- Commenting on a post
- Re-sharing a post
- Adding someone to circles (circles are similar to Twitter Lists, you can create as many as you like and organise your contacts in a way that will help you engage and interact more effectively).
More interaction = More trust = Higher Search Rankings for that interaction.
If you are new to Google+ and not sure how to get started at all, and what all different menu options mean.
Google+ Marketing Strategy
1. Improve your Local SEO results
Google+ Local pages are replacing the old Google Local business listings, so you will need to claim both old and new profiles for your business and merge them together. Add all necessary information that your customers will be interested in: how to contact you, address, opening hours, verify your website, add other social media, add images to showcase your products and services, write a description including your key search terms and keywords. Link from your website to your Local page and to your personal profile (as an author - see more below).
2. Link your Google+ profile to your blog
Confirm that you are the author of your blog in the eyes of Google and link the two together. This will get your photo and G+ link appear next to search results from your blog. If you have a WordPress blog you can easily link them up using one of the plugins (like SEO by Yoast) or through your theme settings. More technical information on how Google Authorship works can be found here.
3. Integrate Google+ into your website
Ensure you have your Local and Profile listings added to the site and that your site is verified with all Google services you will be using (including YouTube). Add your G+ profile badge or button to the website and show a +1 option for your posts and pages. This way other Google+ users can share your content with their followers for you. More interaction for your links = more SEO trust.
4. Use Hangouts on Air to connect and build your brand
With updated and enhanced Hangouts, you can connect with your customers, promote your products and services, run webinars and team meetings - all free of charge. And you can then share those videos automatically to YouTube increasing your reach even further. You can offer people your knowledge, insight, solutions or exclusive access to content and they will register for your hangouts, growing your Google+ circle and expanding your influence. A regular schedule of webcasts is a good platform for announcing product launches, discounts, promotional events, sales, etc.
5. Network effectively with the right followers using Circles
Circles are a great tool to organise your connections and followers in Google+. Circles help you segment your connections into interest or pipeline lists and thereafter share content only relevant to this particular Circle. You can also see what only those in a particular Circle are sharing, making it easier to comment and engage with their content back. You might find that you will engage with some of your Circles more often than others based on users in it. To find people worth connecting with you can use Google Search function and Ripples.
6. Share interesting and compelling content
As with any marketing channel, you would want to share content that's relevant, interesting and timely for your followers. Although you can't share posts directly on Google+, you can use a third party tool like Buffer or HootSuite to schedule your updates in advance. When posting updates you can tag other users, use hashtags (this is similar to Twitter again). Visual content is usually more appealing than text only, but test different options to figure out what really works for your audience. You can even post mini-blogs there, as unlike with Twitter or Facebook, there isn't a character limit for your posts.
7. Engage and interact with your audience
To grow your community and gain new business leads, it's not enough to just post and post content about your brand. You need to connect and interact with your followers - like you would on any other social media channel. You can do this in several ways: mention others in posts (e.g. if you want to give credit or link a case study to their business); reply to any comments you receive on your posts; use Circles to segment and simplify curation of content by your followers - comment, share and +1 their posts; keep and eye on "what's trending" topics and join in when you can; join relevant business communities and Hangouts and engage with other targeted users there.
Finally, don't forget to measure your success by comparing your results to your marketing goals. You can track some of it with just Google Analytics, and for more advanced information about your Google+ efforts you can use third-party sites like All My Plus Stats, Simply Measured, Circle Count and Google Business Insight for your business page.
My name is Tamara Baranova. I run TJConsulting and I help small business owners grow their business by delivering effective online marketing mentoring, support and training. My clients see their business succeed, grow fast, and generate healthy profits through online marketing strategy that works.
Want to know more? Go to my website
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