8 Tips of Using Google+ for Business

Google+ often gets put on the back burner when it comes to a business’ social media accounts, but why? It can greatly increase the online exposure of your company and has many desirable features. Plus, it has over 359 million active users, which is about 159 million more than LinkedIn and Twitter. Google+ doesn't get the credit it deserves! In order to fully utilize all that Google+ has to offer, there are just a few things you need to know:

1.    Be Active and Promote Your Page

In order to see high engagement, you need to post frequently on your Google+ page. Obviously you don’t want to overdo it, but make sure you are regularly posting relevant and enticing content and maybe even hosting Hangouts regularly. You want to keep your customers involved and interested!

Promote your Google+ page on your website and other social media accounts to increase your follower count. Add the badge to your website and schedule posts on your other networks encouraging your audience to check out your Google+ page.

2.    Use Google+ Ripples

Ripples is a savvy new insights tool that helps you identify the influencers in your company’s market and what posts intrigue them the most by using easy to follow graphics.

It provides a pictorial guide to who has shared your content and the comments they have made. Use it to identify trends and view the range of your content from the time it was posted to the present.

You can also see in what ways and languages a post has been shared and the different statistic associated with that post.

3.    Schedule Google+ Hangouts

What’s a Google+ Hangout you ask? It’s like a webinar, only better! Google+ Hangouts allow you to broadcast a live session to anyone with an Internet connection; it’s like a talk show online. Invite brand leaders, answer customer questions, have a discussion with professionals; host any kind of session you think your audience would like. It’s a great way to get your customers involved with your company. You can also record your Google+ Hangout session while it’s happening and it will be posted directly to your YouTube channel (just be sure your Google+ page is linked to the correct YouTube account).

4.    Use Hashtags

As with any social media site, hastags are a great way to increase the exposure of your content posted. By inserting a hashtag, your content will appear in the search results when a user clicks on or manually searches for that hashtag. Google+ has taken it one step further and includes them with every update. Sometimes it will even suggest hashtags for you!

 5.    Take Advantage of Larger Cover Photos

The fact that the size of the cover photos increased may not seem significant to you, but it actually holds importance. This gives you a greater opportunity to draw your audience in. You can use the cover photo as a chance to show your potential customers what your company is about via a captivating picture.

 6.   Utilize Google+ Local

If you haven’t already noticed, Google+ Local has replaced Google Places. Google+ Local helps users discover and share places based on their circles, past reviews, and location. When a search is done on Google, the results show reviews, details, photos, and scoring of the businesses that have Google+ pages. Also, users are prompted to review places they’ve searched for on Google – great PR for businesses! Create your page today to get started!

 7.   Be Involved in Communities

Google+ offers communities, similar to Facebook groups and LinkedIn groups. There is a vast variety to choose from, so chances are you will find at least one that fits your company. If not, you have the option to create your own community. Google+ has a great spam management system in place and will make posts only visible to moderators if it is detected as possible spam, but if you would like extra protection against spam, you can create your own private community and invite the people you want as members. You can also create your community as public and regulate the members who join

8.    Connect Your Company Website to Your Google+ Page

Google+ allows you to embed a badge into your website to encourage customers to connect with you. There are several different options to choose from: +1 button (pictured below), regular badge, follow button, interactive posts, etc. The follow button badge is probably your best bet because it allows visitors to follow your company on Google+ without leaving your site. Also, when you add the Google+ badge to your website, the follow button will appear next to your listing in Google search results. How convenient!

 

Google+ has come a long way since its introduction and is on its journey to being on top of the social media world. Take advantage of its many attributes and grow your business’ online presence!

 via