Blinky
Owner
Nowadays it is really important to do social marketing. A lot of companies and local businesses try to get into this fast-growing trends and most of them really need to do better than what they do now. They need to comprise all main social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest and do not forget the Google's player - Google+. It is not an easy job to great, manage, reply and run your business using these social networks. You need to be focused and up-to-date with all the upcoming information and tips, especially it is a mush when Google rolled out Google+. That was the start of "pay attention on your social signals".
Most of the people think that getting into the big social networks is wrong, if you do not focus on the main ones at the first place. The right answer is you should be there, where your visitors are. And do not thing Google+ is an exception. The network is kind of new, but fast growing, comparing to Facebook and Twitter. The Internet is full of materials of who to run, manage and create successful campaigns in Facebook and Twitter like a pro social marketer. If you skip Google+ as an option, this could be a big mistake in your social marketing. It is a well-known secret that there is something between your Google ranking and using their product, specially Google+. In this post will try to give some tips hot to give a fresh air to your Google+ profile and get the best benefits of using this social network.
Why Google+ Matters
Most of the marketers know that Google+ really matters and they have variety of reasons to think that way. One of the main reasons is - this is Google product and it could not be skipped when we talk about social signal. Nowadays SEO is strongly linked to those social signal, believe it or no. Making your business social, you need to know that Google+ should be in your list of social medias.
In the beginning Google+ was just a sign that Google does not want to lose the social battle, and as we all see, the social network quickly gained and become one of the most popular. It a big surprise to everyone that it grows no matter is far away more inactive than the others. Let's talk in digits - According to GlobalWebIndex, Google+ now has over 360 million active users, which makes it twice bigger than Twitter with its 200 million active users. You can see good reason to be there, not to mentioned that your web position has something in common with your Google+ social management.
Steps you need to take in order to gain the Google+ Influence
Getting it Google+ is not a good idea, but also a huge challenge to most business and site owners. Most of them are not expecting a lot of traffic and benefits from there, but they need to thing out of the box. First of all - it is not so difficult to get into. Once you done that, you are in the game. In this post, I will give what I thing will help you to getting the most out of your Google+ profile / company page.
1. Great business page and use it to get more benefits
At the beginning you have to decide what will do the job best for you - personal profile or professional business page. My own experience shows me that building a brand or a business page is always better option.
When you setup you first Google+ business page, make sure you use it to distribute your content and attract traffic from there. Do not create it and leave it in the dust. You will be that the setup and branding process is easy and simple. Google made it possible with just a few click. By clicking on the arrow next to your profile picture (visit profile), you will get to your profile, where you should fill out the needed information. Creating a business page is just matter of minutes, even seconds.
You will see several options like:
Local Business or Place
Hotels, restaurants, places, stores, services ...
Product or Brand
Apparel, cars, electronics, financial services ...
Company, Institution or Organization
Companies, organizations, institutions, non-profits ...
Arts, Entertainment or Sports
Movies, TV, music, books, sports, shows ...
Other
Use if your page doesn't fit in another category.
It looks like that:
Select the best one you business follows into. You can also see the other 2 steps you need to take in order to finish creating the page (Add info and Get started - which is posting content and promoting the page).
Once you are in your profile, you start investing some time to fill it out with useful content, information and whatever you want. As you can see my first image in the post - the cover photos are huge and there are less options than Facebook. The dimensions are 2120 pixels wide by 1192 pixels high. You need to know what while creating the cover. Also, do not forget the cover to be related to your brand somehow. Do not put random images, that do not means nothing to your brand and business as well.
By creating your visual identity, you are now ready to promote it and integrate it to your site, PRs, articles, forum and other social profiles and many more. Use your page often - do it with social purpose, not only commercial.
2. Boost Your Traffic by Using Google Hangout
Google Hangout is one of the greatest and unique at the same time features of Google+. Basically, it is a video chat and streaming application within Google+, allowing to share not more than 10 participants at a time. This well-made option gives the chance to get streaming on your site, make a real time video and the best part - share webinars. Great, isn't it? Google is familiar with the fact that getting in touch with your audience using videos, will have bring you more dedications and engage the visitor base. Live communication is one of the benefits that social site will continue developing with the time.
Please, take a look at these useful advices on how to use Google Hangout for your business purposes:
3. Start building up your circles to segment your target
As a professional marketer, you probably know you need to segment your marketing by building up circles of targeted visitors. What does it mean? You should attract people who will gave interest in your brand / products / business / market. A good example is already given - pet lovers, that are interested in pet products, food, medications and etc. You need people that will response. And the response will come if they have that interest. It is kind of strange to promote or talk about auto product to girls of age under 20 years, for example. It is a huge challenge, here in social networks, but once the strategy is created correctly, everything comes in it place.
Facebook pages collect the people once they give "Like", while Google+ organizes them into circles. When you add the person into your circles, he start seeing what you share. The circles could be categorized in family, friends, colleagues. That way you can properly target the different circles. As a business, you can categorize it like this:
What is the conclusion here? Well, when you make your strategy and advertising, you should take advantage of segmenting your audience on Google+. The results optimal results come when your "tunning" your campaign. What better from showing specific content to circles you want. You just need too take time to segment them once and use this great option in future.
4. Create a community in the social network
Social networks, like Google+ and LinkedIn, have a feature that will help you out create a community around your idea, product, brand, industry. By using the search bar you can find your potential members and "fens". All you need it is show them that you provide value, not only on your page board, but also on theirs. Like you do blogging - you an not be a part of the niche, if no one doesn't know you, right? So, social networks is all about socializing and you need to know that.
If you can not find a community that has your potential audience, that start one and add people who shares your interests and ideas. Google has a strict rules about spam and Google+ is not an exception at all. Thanks to its great administrator tools, you will have the rights to ban users and bot (in case there are some) that robust privacy settings. If you want to build up you virtual community using Google+, so now it is your chance to do it. Believe it or no, some part of the companies use Google+ in their CRM systems in order to develop teams, clients, partners, channel and other groups.
5. Overtake your local area with Google+
If your have a small local business, it is s smart choice to target your specific geographic audience by using Google+ as a vital tool in order to ensuring online visibility in SEs (Search Engines). Google+ Local is the newest service helping local businesses, replacing the old product - Google's Local Pages. Once the client leave a comment via Google, this will be noticed in your Google+ company page, even you haven't approve it at the moment.
You will get higher on local searches that way, which a benefit most businesses want. Your Google+ reviews, comments, details, photos and activities will be shown in the search results, not to mention that Google's mobile Google+ Local App will give you a boost by making it increasingly relevant point. Well, what better that that? All you need to do it to fill out your information properly and add content regularly. It is not a big deal, isn't it?
6. Connect your web resources with Google+ - authorship
Have you ever heart about Google+ authorship program? NO? Well, let me give you a quick tips here. It as simple as 1,2,3. You need to add a simple tag to the content of your site using the rel=author tag, but before that include the URL of the site in your Google+ profile details. You see here here how to do that.
According to my personal experience, I could say that Google authorship is important in many different ways.
At the end of my post, you need to write it once again:
As a social network, you need to get into Google+ and take your time to setup your business page out there.
Please, share with me and the Predpriemach.com community your thoughts and experience wit Google+. Your are welcome to share some advices, tips and tricks. Hope you like the post and share what your know.
Best of luck,
Most of the people think that getting into the big social networks is wrong, if you do not focus on the main ones at the first place. The right answer is you should be there, where your visitors are. And do not thing Google+ is an exception. The network is kind of new, but fast growing, comparing to Facebook and Twitter. The Internet is full of materials of who to run, manage and create successful campaigns in Facebook and Twitter like a pro social marketer. If you skip Google+ as an option, this could be a big mistake in your social marketing. It is a well-known secret that there is something between your Google ranking and using their product, specially Google+. In this post will try to give some tips hot to give a fresh air to your Google+ profile and get the best benefits of using this social network.
Why Google+ Matters
Most of the marketers know that Google+ really matters and they have variety of reasons to think that way. One of the main reasons is - this is Google product and it could not be skipped when we talk about social signal. Nowadays SEO is strongly linked to those social signal, believe it or no. Making your business social, you need to know that Google+ should be in your list of social medias.
In the beginning Google+ was just a sign that Google does not want to lose the social battle, and as we all see, the social network quickly gained and become one of the most popular. It a big surprise to everyone that it grows no matter is far away more inactive than the others. Let's talk in digits - According to GlobalWebIndex, Google+ now has over 360 million active users, which makes it twice bigger than Twitter with its 200 million active users. You can see good reason to be there, not to mentioned that your web position has something in common with your Google+ social management.
Steps you need to take in order to gain the Google+ Influence
Getting it Google+ is not a good idea, but also a huge challenge to most business and site owners. Most of them are not expecting a lot of traffic and benefits from there, but they need to thing out of the box. First of all - it is not so difficult to get into. Once you done that, you are in the game. In this post, I will give what I thing will help you to getting the most out of your Google+ profile / company page.
1. Great business page and use it to get more benefits
At the beginning you have to decide what will do the job best for you - personal profile or professional business page. My own experience shows me that building a brand or a business page is always better option.
When you setup you first Google+ business page, make sure you use it to distribute your content and attract traffic from there. Do not create it and leave it in the dust. You will be that the setup and branding process is easy and simple. Google made it possible with just a few click. By clicking on the arrow next to your profile picture (visit profile), you will get to your profile, where you should fill out the needed information. Creating a business page is just matter of minutes, even seconds.
You will see several options like:
Local Business or Place
Hotels, restaurants, places, stores, services ...
Product or Brand
Apparel, cars, electronics, financial services ...
Company, Institution or Organization
Companies, organizations, institutions, non-profits ...
Arts, Entertainment or Sports
Movies, TV, music, books, sports, shows ...
Other
Use if your page doesn't fit in another category.
It looks like that:
Select the best one you business follows into. You can also see the other 2 steps you need to take in order to finish creating the page (Add info and Get started - which is posting content and promoting the page).
Once you are in your profile, you start investing some time to fill it out with useful content, information and whatever you want. As you can see my first image in the post - the cover photos are huge and there are less options than Facebook. The dimensions are 2120 pixels wide by 1192 pixels high. You need to know what while creating the cover. Also, do not forget the cover to be related to your brand somehow. Do not put random images, that do not means nothing to your brand and business as well.
By creating your visual identity, you are now ready to promote it and integrate it to your site, PRs, articles, forum and other social profiles and many more. Use your page often - do it with social purpose, not only commercial.
2. Boost Your Traffic by Using Google Hangout
Google Hangout is one of the greatest and unique at the same time features of Google+. Basically, it is a video chat and streaming application within Google+, allowing to share not more than 10 participants at a time. This well-made option gives the chance to get streaming on your site, make a real time video and the best part - share webinars. Great, isn't it? Google is familiar with the fact that getting in touch with your audience using videos, will have bring you more dedications and engage the visitor base. Live communication is one of the benefits that social site will continue developing with the time.
Please, take a look at these useful advices on how to use Google Hangout for your business purposes:
- Without a doubt your visitors will much more related and dedicated to your business, products, brand or industry, if you have such Q&A (questions and answers) section, where they can discuss problems, thoughts, suggestions and etc.
- Start making webinar-style discussion on some specific for your business topic. Once you do it, use the Hangout option to give a chance to your audience to ask questions, leave a feedback at the moment.
- You can start also discussions by getting experts in your field. For example, you are a pet shop and want to promote your new dog beds - get in touch with veterinarians to talk about the product and share it - the pet lovers will be really interested in understanding the need of pet bed.
- You can Google Hangout as a advertising channel - launching a new product, upcoming event, company announcement and etc.
- Using it as a real time support. You sells your stuff online at the moment.
- Give your audience a bonus by using Google Hangout - demos / real-time training / how to guide / tips and tricks
- You can connect a Twitter Chat with Google Hangout. Connecting channels is a smart way to get together all the visitors at one place. And why Google Hangout could not be the center?
- Use it as a community place, where you can give customer-driven chats, concerts, talent shows.
- Business meeting in face-to-face style with your partners or clients, where you can share files, documents. You should know that there is an option private Hangouts.
- Team building or group coffee break. You can meet people, all working together in your company, but not side by side. For example, if you are digital agency, you can make a meeting, involving web programmers, designers, SEO experts, social specialist, discussing your next project.
3. Start building up your circles to segment your target
As a professional marketer, you probably know you need to segment your marketing by building up circles of targeted visitors. What does it mean? You should attract people who will gave interest in your brand / products / business / market. A good example is already given - pet lovers, that are interested in pet products, food, medications and etc. You need people that will response. And the response will come if they have that interest. It is kind of strange to promote or talk about auto product to girls of age under 20 years, for example. It is a huge challenge, here in social networks, but once the strategy is created correctly, everything comes in it place.
Facebook pages collect the people once they give "Like", while Google+ organizes them into circles. When you add the person into your circles, he start seeing what you share. The circles could be categorized in family, friends, colleagues. That way you can properly target the different circles. As a business, you can categorize it like this:
- VIP Customers
- First time buyers
- Members of the Press
- Hot leads
- Members of your email marketing list
- Employees
- Board of directors
What is the conclusion here? Well, when you make your strategy and advertising, you should take advantage of segmenting your audience on Google+. The results optimal results come when your "tunning" your campaign. What better from showing specific content to circles you want. You just need too take time to segment them once and use this great option in future.
4. Create a community in the social network
Social networks, like Google+ and LinkedIn, have a feature that will help you out create a community around your idea, product, brand, industry. By using the search bar you can find your potential members and "fens". All you need it is show them that you provide value, not only on your page board, but also on theirs. Like you do blogging - you an not be a part of the niche, if no one doesn't know you, right? So, social networks is all about socializing and you need to know that.
If you can not find a community that has your potential audience, that start one and add people who shares your interests and ideas. Google has a strict rules about spam and Google+ is not an exception at all. Thanks to its great administrator tools, you will have the rights to ban users and bot (in case there are some) that robust privacy settings. If you want to build up you virtual community using Google+, so now it is your chance to do it. Believe it or no, some part of the companies use Google+ in their CRM systems in order to develop teams, clients, partners, channel and other groups.
5. Overtake your local area with Google+
If your have a small local business, it is s smart choice to target your specific geographic audience by using Google+ as a vital tool in order to ensuring online visibility in SEs (Search Engines). Google+ Local is the newest service helping local businesses, replacing the old product - Google's Local Pages. Once the client leave a comment via Google, this will be noticed in your Google+ company page, even you haven't approve it at the moment.
You will get higher on local searches that way, which a benefit most businesses want. Your Google+ reviews, comments, details, photos and activities will be shown in the search results, not to mention that Google's mobile Google+ Local App will give you a boost by making it increasingly relevant point. Well, what better that that? All you need to do it to fill out your information properly and add content regularly. It is not a big deal, isn't it?
6. Connect your web resources with Google+ - authorship
Have you ever heart about Google+ authorship program? NO? Well, let me give you a quick tips here. It as simple as 1,2,3. You need to add a simple tag to the content of your site using the rel=author tag, but before that include the URL of the site in your Google+ profile details. You see here here how to do that.
According to my personal experience, I could say that Google authorship is important in many different ways.
- Your profile picture will show up next to your content in the SERPs. The practice notices that this increase the CTR - more traffic -> more reader -> more sales.
- Increases content, which means your visitors will have more information looking at your link in SERPs.
- Brings long term branding - visitors will recognize you with the time. This will also increase the weight in SEs. Google likes brands.
At the end of my post, you need to write it once again:
As a social network, you need to get into Google+ and take your time to setup your business page out there.
Please, share with me and the Predpriemach.com community your thoughts and experience wit Google+. Your are welcome to share some advices, tips and tricks. Hope you like the post and share what your know.
Best of luck,
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