Now Businesses Can Share with Circles, Too!
Google Plus Pages, the online rival to Facebook, has created a guide that will walk you through how to set up your Business Page, get started, share, promote and measure.
Let’s take a quick look at what they say about the three functions that benefit your business:
SHARE
Google Plus Pages allows you to drill down deeper – because not all your customers or fans are interested in all the same things. Some want to know about your latest promotions, while others simply don’t want to be bothered, right? They may want the latest news, or ask questions about products. You can even conduct live video chat to really connect. By creating a multitude of Circles, you can get very specific about what you share in each circle, and hit the mark with high levels of interest. Use your Stream to post great info – and make it public so it can be found in search.
PROMOTE
You have a lot of options for promoting your Google Plus Page:
– promote it yourself with Google+ Direct Connect and the Google+ badge
– help others recommend you with the +1 button
People search on Google billions of times a day, and very often, they’re looking for businesses and brands. Google+ Pages can help users transform their queries into meaningful connections. A new feature called Direct Connect makes it easy — even automatic — for people to connect with you.
Let people know you’re here by connecting your company website to your Google+ Page by adding the Google+ badge to your site. Whenever someone who likes your site clicks the icon, they will be taken to your Google+ page where they can add your page to their circles, and be able to follow your posts from then on.
A recommendation is good; a recommendation from a friend is even better. +1 annotations in Google search help surface these recommendations right when people need them most — when they’re searching for exactly that information.
MEASURE
How do +1’s affect user behavior? Google Analytics suite of social reports make it easy to find out. Analytics measures +1’s and how engagement on your site changes when personalized recommendations help your content stand out. Also see aggregate, anonymized demographic information about the Google users who have +1’d your site.
Google Plus Page Reviews
Reviewers are wild about this new tool, anticipating that Google Plus will BEAT Facebook AND Twitter!
According to Caleb Garling, on influential Wired.com, “At this point, Google+ Pages are where businesses interact with web denizens on the cutting edge of net technology, and Facebook is where you interact with everyone else… Google integrates Plus into its web-dominating search engine. With Google+ Direct Connect, searchers can insert a “+” before their query and jump directly to a business’s Google+ page. Type “+YouTube” into a Google search box, for instance, and Google will take you straight to YouTube’s Plus page.
“This is where Google will have an advantage over Facebook: With a broad array of services like search and Gmail and Chrome and Android, Google offers tools that are fundamental to the online lives of so many people — and these can be tied to Google+. As Google+ evolves, Google will have the means to promote its social network — and the branded Pages within it — in ways that Facebook or Twitter cannot.”
This should be fun to watch! What’s YOUR prediction?
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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.
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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:
Ms. Chapman’s new book has a name change! The Net-Powered Entrepreneur – A Step-by-Step Guide will be available very soon. With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com
Lisa,
As someone who has come late to social media, I’m wondering where do I put my effort. I’m active on Linked in and am blogging.. My next task is start using Facebook for business or setting up and using Goggle+ for business. yes, it would be great to do both simultaneously but I know I’ll get overwhelmed. What do you suggest first Facebook or Goolge +?
Marcia,
As with every marketing decision, your answer depends upon where you’re most likely to cost-effectibvely connect with your target market.
In addition to that, I found some interesting info in a post that puts a strong spin om marketers’ preferences – I quote the next section below from the full article posted at the link below:
“Some conclusions:
■“Facebook marketing” and “Facebook for business” searches dominate as compared to YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus.
■Searches and news about “marketing” on platforms typically precedes the “for business” searches and news. In the case of Google Plus this seems to be the case, but the marketing searches seem to have petered out while the “for business” searches have been much more pronounced.
■Significant press coverage seems to lag large volumes of searches by quite a few months or years.
■Twitter got a lot of searches and press coverage for both areas when it was in the 10-20 million users stage (2009).
■Facebook had it’s big bump in “marketing” searches in late 2007 when it had about 50 million users and “for business” in early 2009 after it passed 100 million users.
■“YouTube marketing” searches started in 2007 as it dominated all of the other video sharing platforms. “YouTube for business” searches get big much later – in 2009.
■“LinkedIn Marketing” searches started growing significantly in 2009 as it approached 50 million users. “Linkedin for Business” searches didn’t get big until 2011 (but maybe because people know it’s “for business” already)”
Source: http://www.rightmixmarketing.com/right-mix-blog/google-plus-business-marketing/
I hope this helps.
Does anyone else have preferences – and why?
Lisa