I have been following Google Plus since its release on June 28, 2011. There have been many debates if Google plus could ever emerge as a strong competitor to Facebook. People have repeatedly questioned, if it could ever be a worthy player in the social media world. As on date Google plus has over 170 million registered users as against Facebook’s 900 million users. These numbers could be misleading if you were to conclude that Google+ is not important for your business. The world of social media marketing is extremely dynamic in nature. Many a companies fail to understand how best to leverage these networks for their advantage.
So here are few tips and tricks to help you understand Google plus and use it effectively for your business.
Establish your brand as a brand leader:
First thing first, set up an official Google plus account. Having a Google plus account with your brand name ensures that you establish your online presence and the details provided by you on this account would verify your real world authenticity. The beauty of Google plus is it’s a Google product integrated with Google Docs, Chrome, Google Reader, Gmail, and YouTube. This significantly impacts the search on world top search engine Google. All this will cumulatively help your brand create a stronger online presence.
Type of Content shared:
Google plus largely focuses on user content and the most popular posts reflect that. This is unlike Facebook on which focus is more on driving interaction.
Focus should be more on content such as pictures, videos, status updates and long posts. As unlike twitter long post is not an issue with Google plus you can look at posting short blogs too. The key is to judiciously share inspired content alongside sharing your own content.
Standout features on Google plus:
Google plus apart from emerging as a strong social media network is an excellent content marketing tool. It allows new and easy distribution of content.
The two standout features on Google plus amongst the host of others available are “Circles” and “Hangout”.
‘Circles’ is one of the brilliant features. By using this feature businesses can easily segment their target audience and then share content with specific groups which they intend to address.
‘Hangout’ is another innovative feature on Google plus. It allows users to easily create video conferences with multiple friends, Co-workers or customers. It could be effectively used during internal conferences on product briefs or be used to share details of new product launches with customers.
Advertising with Google plus:
Being present on Google plus itself presents a huge visibility for your brand with over 170 million users being present on it. It also aides your Google Ad word campaigns as your search results are impacted by your presence on Google Plus and you actually get some search priority in the results. The other important factor you simply can’t miss when you want to advertise your brand is link building. On your Google plus page share details about your products, services, recent blogs, changes you did to your websites, things you did which helped your brand be in news or simply your brand thoughts. All of this will help you create referral links and fuel the biggest media for advertising WOM i.e. word of mouth publicity. This is something you should never let go.
So now you know what your business has been missing out on and why you should make sure your brand is present on Google plus. It’s always important for every brand to find new avenues and platform and seize the opportunity to be flaunted. So here’s your opportunity, go ahead and get involved.
