How to get the most out of Google Plus
Now you have decided Google+ is the best place to market your business and have set up a Google My Business account, it’s time to grow your audience and engage with other users. This section will show you how to build a Google+ marketing strategy.
How to Make Your Google Plus Page Stand Out
If people can’t see your Google+ page, it’s going to be difficult to get them to connect and engage with your business. Creating and posting your own content is a great way to drive traffic to your page. Whether it’s a blog post, press release, viral video or advert, great content is a sure-fire way to get attention.
Understanding SEO and prioritising and including keywords will ensure your content is more visible in Google searches.
Top Tip: If you have a website, have written an article or created an advert, make sure you add a Google+ badge to the page. You can add badges for your personal and business accounts. People can then engage with you with one simple click of a mouse.
How to Get More Followers
As traffic to your Google+ page begins to gain traction, it’s vital you don’t sit back. To grow your audience, you have to be proactive and start the conversation. Merely posting or sharing content is not enough to engage with the community and start a discussion.
Comment on posts that reflect your business interests, ask questions and give opinions and perspectives to contribute to the debate.
Increase followers by:
* Creating content that your followers will love.
* Responding to users’ comment and questions. Asking follow-up questions will continue the debate.
* Hashtags can help engage followers. These are useful with repeat campaigns that are easy for people to participate in on a regular basis. For example, #AskmeMonday may be a great way to start a discussion that can last the whole week.
* Invite people to the debate with +mentions
IMPORTANT: Always end posts with a question mark to encourage a discussion.
Use Circles to Your Advantage
Once you have a number of followers, you’ll want to group them into audiences. Google+ allows you place contacts into circles so you can target the right people with the right information. Spamming people with information that is irrelevant to them is a huge turn-off.
How to Set Up Your Circles
* Drag any individual or individuals to the ‘Drop Here To Create A New Circle’ circle.
* Then click ‘create circle’.
* Name your new circle in the pop-up box that appears and click ‘create circle’.
Good To Know: If you’re unsure about which circles to place people in, then Google+ provides custom circles to get you started. They are: Following, Customers, VIPs and Team Members.