Google+, though still young, has become a powerful social media tool which combines common searches with the community of social networkers now utilizing the opportunities Google has given them. Creating circles of friends, colleagues, VIPs and a collection of public interests, the site has given businesses a new opportunity to bring traffic through their website.
Unlike traditional social media website, Google+ ties its searches in with the community surrounding your profile and business pages. This means that people connected to you through Google+ are more likely to see your pages and your brand than ever before.
What this means for businesses is that driving traffic to your website is profoundly easier and therefore Google+’s features should be embraced in order to access this new chance to push your brand recognition in the public forum.
But what features are different to what’s already offered on the social media table? What sets it apart and which should you be focusing your efforts on to build your business?
The first job is to look at who you are as a company. What’s important to you, how do you define yourself, what are you offering, how do you want people to perceive you? By answering these initial questions, it will become clearer in your mind as to which direction your Google+ campaign should take and which features will work best for your business plan.
Here’s a helping hand to start you on your way to understand where your efforts should lie.
Google+ Local
Formerly Google Places, Google+ Local is a new way of tying in offline and online businesses so that local and small companies to improve their visibility on the web. Offering a chance to snap up your geographical location, Google+ shows your business in local searches and through their mapping programs.
What this means for you as a small business, is that if you want people to understand the services you’re providing and visit your bricks and mortar store, you need to be available online through Google+ for potential customers to find you in a search and read reviews and recommendations associated with you.
This new geo-targeting system is designated to locating you both on and offline. Combined with your own webpage, you can use Google+ Local to help people understand where you are and then to visit your site for further information. It’s a fantastic way to tie the two in together so that local people can understand your business a little easier.
Google+ Badge
Similarly to Pinterest and Facebook ‘like’ buttons, the +1 button offered by Google+ is a way to knit this social network and your website together. Google+ will supply you with the code to implement on to your website so that customers can add you to their Google+ circles and therefore access any posts, events, photos etc that you release on your Google+.
This is an ongoing cycle. By visiting your website and +1ing your page, they then have further access to your site when they see something of interest. It also means that others in their circle can see releases from your site and that these customers have the propensity to share your information with their peers. It creates a fantastic snowball effect for gathering customers.
Google+ Events
Although other social networks offer an event system, it is targeted mainly at people they already know. The beauty of creating an event in Google+ is that the public can share this and add to it as part of a community. www.theschoolofinternetmarketing.com explicitly states the importance of community in marketing your products online. It allows the sharing of information and peer reviews which engage new audiences and create a reputation around your brand.
With Google+ events, the community can add their own photos and interact in one place concerning the event your business has posted. Say for example, you’re a bar which is hosting a live gig, you can post the event there, invite relevant people and local people and encourage interaction prior to the event, and photo sharing after the event for future encouragement for those who couldn’t make it.
But it doesn’t end there. It is a great way to mix up your postings on your page as events can be created for all types of businesses. Perhaps you are a clothing company having a sale; why not invite people to the sale? This gives you an opportunity to not only let people know of your sale, but also for them to be persuaded to hit your website.
Engage and Converse to Improve your SEO
With Google+ being tied in with search terms, it means that your conversations and posts are monitored for keywords and SEO search terms, assisting with your SEO campaign.
As a business, you should be posting engaging releases which are a mix of multimedia: videos, photos, links etc. This keeps your target audience engaged with what you’re posting, rather than overwhelmed by excessive text. By implementing keywords, this will help improve your rank on Google as Google+ is heavily tied into searches; people in your circles will automatically see your details on the first pages as they’re linked to you. The significant point here though, is that it is vital to use keywords that aren’t industry jargon but real search terms. For example, say you’re providing Genesis Themes for WordPress, it’s important to recognize that people are more likely to search ‘WordPress themes’ or ‘website layouts’ and your keywords should be altered accordingly.
Additionally, when finding trending conversations and joining them to improve brand and company awareness, try to also use key terms in order to add to your significance in Google rankings.
