Search engine giant Google just may have created a contender for social media giant Facebook. Since its launch last year, Google+ has seen tremendous growth as a communications hub, and now the social network is quickly becoming a smart hangout for businesses, too. In this article, I’ll show you how to make Google+ work for you.
Why Google+ Matters
Unless you have been living under a rock, you know Google+ is getting tons of buzz. But why does it matter, from a business point of view?
With over 90 million users so far and a growing effect on search, Google+ is gaining ground quickly. Through page creation, businesses can establish a presence on the network and develop relationships with clients and prospects on several different levels. There are the typical social network interactions such as commenting, sharing photos, and endorsing the brand (+1), but it is the Hangouts feature that sets Google+ apart from its competitors.
With Hangouts, companies can engage with fans and prospects through video conference calls. So, you can make the same face-to-face connections online that you do in real life through this video chat feature.
As I mentioned, Google+ is changing the search landscape as well. Google is learning whose opinions you value most and what content you really care about by studying your interactions on Google+. This information will create a more targeted search experience, yielding more useful search results.
Also, Google’s version of the tweet or share button, the +1 button, will determine how you show up in search results and get traffic. The buttons appear in search results and can be embedded into your website or blog. I’ll explain more about how to use the +1 button next.
Using the +1 Button on Your Blog
According to HubSpot, websites using the +1 button get 3.5 times the Google+ visits. Social sharing buttons make it easy for visitors to share your content on social media sites, so don’t forget to incorporate them into your blog’s marketing strategy.
The +1 button has its own promotion factor built in, which can encourage visitors to click through to your content. Each +1 is like a vote for that content, so users can see how many people have found it useful before they ever click through. All the +1’s next to your content tell visitors that what you have to offer is valuable and that they should check it out.
On the other hand, people love to be the first one to discover something new and share it with their friends. According to Dan Zarella, there is a powerful “first post” effect that causes people to seek out content they can be the first to share. Add +1 buttons to your blog to present many opportunities for people to share your content with others.
Segmenting With Circles
Besides the Hangouts feature, Google+ sets itself apart by allowing users to segment their network into circles. We all understand that, while our networks are full of friends, family, acquaintances, and work colleagues, we many only want a select group of people to see certain posts and photos. That’s where circles come in.
Circles come in handy for businesses when you want to communicate specific information to a select group of people. For instance, you may want to share different content with people based on your association with them and their needs. So, you can create circles for current customers, prospects, employees, industry colleagues, competitors, and more. Effective communications are highly targeted to the audience, and Google+ circles help you organize and target your audience appropriately.
Google+ Best Practices
Finally, I’m going to share some best practices for using Google+ for business, offered by Hubspot’s Maggie Georgieva. Try these out to take advantage of Google+’s enormous communications potential.
1. Encourage sharing - For your content to become viral on Google+, it must be shared. Encourage people to share your content by asking them to. Just like asking for re-tweets on Twitter, you can increase the number of shares on Google+ by requesting them every time you post a message, photo or link.
2. Use recommended links - Google+ users have the option to add recommended links under the About tab of their page. Use this space to promote new blog articles and lead generation offers to drive traffic and increase leads.
3. Share plenty of photos - Individual photos, rather than entire albums of images (as is often the case on Facebook) are shared in large volume on Google+. Add visual interest and a viral component by sharing engaging images on a regular basis. Think outside the box; graphs and charts are images as well, so you don’t have to stick with pictures only.
4. Analyze your Google+ efforts - Use referral traffic data from plus.Google.com to determine which methods are working for you on Google+. It is always important to study analytics to show whether your efforts are increasing traffic and generating leads, and Google+ marketing is no exception.
Image courtesy of Technorati
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