1. http://gplus.to/rwardlow7
By: Rebecca Wardlow, Social Biz Diva
How To Connect With Your Customers Using
Google+
2. Key Topics Today:
• Why Google+?
• Setting up a Google+ Page for your business
• Best practices and great example cases for
using Google+
• Promoting your Google+ Page
• Improving the performance of your online
marketing with +1
4. “Google+ is Google itself. We’re extending it across
all that we do – search, ads, Chrome, Android, Maps, YouTube – so
that each of those services contributes to our understanding of
who YOU are.”
Bradley Horowitz, VP products for Google+
5. Why Google+
» 70% of people start the search for your
business on Google
» 400 million members
» Attracts 100 million active monthly users
» Google+ Is Indexed by Google
» Visibility of Posts any follower as well as the
public. (Facebook Edgerank determines which
friends or fans see posts)
Google Stats: http://ow.ly/fyGee
6. Google
» Google owns the playground!
» Search results are affected by the people you
are friends with on Google+
» Social connections hold more value than links
» Sites on Google+ are indexed quickly
» +1 links rank higher in search results
» Google+ & Search Integration
7. What Are We Covering?
Setting Up Best Promoting
Google+ Practices Your Page
26. Circle Organization
• Find Interesting people
and Organize them into
Circles
• Use Circles in 2 ways
– Share posts with specific
groups
– Read posts from specific
groups
27. “Circles”
• Circles are flexible • NOTE: Circling is
• You can completely delete unilateral. You do not
circles or redo them. need to ask for or receive
• The people in your circle permission to circle
do not see the name of someone.
the circle you put them in • Circles enable YOU to
• Click the “X” in upper control who can read
right corner of person’s your posts.
photo to remove them • Circles can be shared with
others.
28. Increase the Quality of Your Stream
• “What’s hot” – click on
Explore in the left side
bar.
• Hashtags “#” symbol.
Use search box.
29. Google+ Local
• Google+ Local
– Previously Google Places
• By creating a Google+
page and optimizing local
listings, businesses can
have greater control over
how they appear in local
search results.
33. Example Content Shared by H&M
• Teasers of upcoming
products or lines
• Photos, or groups of
photos, around a certain
theme, linking to its
website
• Videos from its YouTube
channel
• Promotions about
Facebook events or
giveaways
34. STEP 2 – DEVELOP A COMMUNITY
• Create your Circles
• Make use of Hangouts
• Engage
37. STEP 3 – PROMOTE YOUR CONTENT
• Post links to your
original content
• Identify authors using
Google’s rel=author
links
• On your website and in
blog posts, add +1
buttons
38. Top 12 Ways to Grow on Google+
1. Complete Your Profile
2. Upload a Striking Cover Photo and Profile
Photo
3. Assign Multiple Managers
4. Add Users to Your Circles
5. Add a Google+ Badge to Your Website
6. Post (Relevant) Content Regularly
39. Top 12 Ways to Grow on Google+
7. Ensure Rich Snippets Are Rendering Correctly
8. Utilize #Hashtags in Your Posts
9. Create Events
10. Host a Hangout
11. Submit a Page Verification Request
12. Set a Vanity URL (http://gplus.to/rwardlow7)
40. Use Ripples to identify influencers
• Click on the top right of any
public post you make and
then click on “View
Ripples”
• Ripples is an interactive
graph that provides an 'at-
a-glance' insight into any
public shares made on
public posts within Google
Plus.
41. More Google+ Tips
• Use Google+ Circles to to follow who you want
to follow (customers, suppliers, industry
leaders and influencers).
• Share information to entertain and interest
your audience.
• Aim for a on-topic/off-topic ratio of 80/20
• See how other businesses are using it
43. Be Active Without Wasting Time
Get it all done in 60 minutes or less.
15 minutes – Look for information outside Google+ that your circles
would enjoy.
15 minutes – Engage in conversation on a post
10 minutes – Read posts by others and comment
10 minutes – Comment on your own posts
5 minutes – Share a new post
45. How To Find People on Google+
• http://findpeopleonplus.com
• http://www.womenofgplus.com/
• http://www.recommendedusers.com/
46. Google+ Chrome Extension
• Do Share - makes sharing and scheduling
content fast and easy http://ow.ly/fyFkd
• CircleCount – see follower history and the
average number of shares and comments
Google+ Is Indexed by GoogleUsing Google+ can help customers find your business faster and easierCreating a business page increases you visibilityGoogle+ offers a cleaner experienceEasier to share and rank other people’s posts and commentsVariety of sharing options (video, posts, photos)Personalized Circles. Follow who you want to follow and no one else.Google+ users are loyal60% of users logged in daily80% engage weeklyGoogle+ is growing90M+ usersThe entire purpose of a social network is to connect and share, Google+ makes this very simple if you understand the basics.
Provide a detailed introduction, employment details, educational background, and places.Be sure to fill out all subheadings and sidebars as well. The text beneath your name, for instance, will serve as a meta description in searches Use targeted keywords.Include a +1 button on every page of your website, and encourage visitors to click it. The number of +1’s you receive is displayed to Google searchers even if they’re not logged into Google+.
When you’ve circled approximately 50 people, Google+ gets really interested.
cover photo is 940 pixels x 180 pixels.Profile pic 260 pixels x 260 pixels.Home = this is where the “stream” is. The stream of what people are saying (aka News feed)Profile = When you want to see what you’ve posted, click on this button. Think of your profile as your own blog or journalExplore = Fin out what’s new and interesting on Google+Events = Plan and invite people to your parties, meetings, and Google+ hangouts.Photos = your photo collections and those you have been tagged in.Circles = Organize and filter who you interact with. Circling on Google+ does not involve sending people a “friend” request. You circle people unilaterally without their permission, although they are notified when you circle them. Local = helps you find “recommended places” such as restaurants or hotels near you geographic locationGames = have control over when you see games, how you play them, and with whom you share your experiencesHangouts = enables you to have video chat sessions with up to ___ peopleThe three dots contain MORE buttons for Google+Pages, Local, Games, HangoutYou can DRAG N DROP any of these buttons to change their order.
Provide a detailed introduction, employment details, educational background, and places.Be sure to fill out all subheadings and sidebars as well. The text beneath your name, for instance, will serve as a meta description in searches Use targeted keywords.Include a +1 button on every page of your website, and encourage visitors to click it. The number of +1’s you receive is displayed to Google searchers even if they’re not logged into Google+.
What is Google+ Local?
What is Google+ Local?
By creating a Google+ page and optimizing local listings, businesses can have greater control over how they appear in local search results.
Cover photo sizeLogo Size
Start by creating your Google+ Circles, such as “Family”, “Friends” then create niche circles such as “Social Media”, “SEO”, “Blogging”
Fill out your/your company profile’s “about” page, from tagline to website links. The idea here is to use your profile as a teaser or invitation, something that pulls viewers to your content online.Whether or not you post on a daily basis, your brand needs to be posting frequently to have an impact. Find content to post that is relevant to your audience, respond to their comments, and link to your own new content.
Fashion retailer H&M, which has over 1.5 million followers on Google+, uses the network to “focus on inspiration,” according to the company’s Global Social Media Manager Miriam Tappert. How do they do it:Posting relevant news content every day
It’s also interesting to note that the brand never posts without a link and/or photos, making every bit of its content eye-catching and attention-grabbing to its fans.
Google+ offers an opportunity to connect with a tech-savvy demographic of potential clients. By adding users to your Circles, providing meaningful content, and engaging in the content others post, you form connections that can benefit your brand.Create your Circles: Circles are to Google+ what friends are to Facebook and following is to Twitter. Add users to your Circles (which can be modified according to your preferences) to create a community of sharing. The larger your Circles, the wider your scope of influence.Make use of Hangouts: If you’ve never used Hangouts, you’re missing out on one of Google+’s biggest opportunities for content marketers. Use Hangouts to record webinars or how-to guides, host Q&A sessions, host workshops, make announcements, and more.Engage: As a community, Google+ is about more than posting your own content — check out what users in your Circles are posting, and +1 (the Google+ equivalent of a Facebook “like”), or comment on those updates regularly.
Using Hangouts and Circles, Cadbury turned itself into the European brand with the largest number of followers on Google+Examples of what Cadbury’s done with Hangouts:For the London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games: It created Hangouts featuring champions like freestyle swimmer Rebecca Adlington.When it reached 500K fans: The company hired an artist to create a “chocolate version” of the Google+ page to use as a Hangout. Content included chocolate recipes, pictures of chocolate sculptures, and promotional videos.Examples of what Cadbury’s done with Circles:Fan groupings: Fans are grouped by candy preference, with circles labeled “Crème Egg,” “Wispa,” and so on. Cadbury invites fans to add themselves to Circles by leaving comments on the brand’s page about which candy they like best. This encouraged involvement and personalized the page.Tasters’ Circle: Cadbury let select users participate in chocolate tastings with the company’s research and development team. Doing this not only allowed the brand to reward customer loyalty but also to gain information through an informal focus group that gave direct feedback.
Marketing your content on Google+ does more than reach out to users — it also “markets” to search engines. Anytime you post content to Google+, Google immediately indexes it, giving you faster exposure. What’s more, your content is more likely to appear in your contacts’ online searches, thanks to personalized search.Post links to your original content: This will get it indexed and ranked by Google, so it can be brought up in regular and personalized search queries. Take my company, Straight North, for example.Identify authors: An easy way for the authors photo came up next to his/her article. That’s thanks to Google’s rel=author links. Have your writers implement something similar in order to identify themselves with their content online in search results. There are two ways to do this:Use a clear byline and verify that author’s email address with Google.Use this HTML in the author bio of the article: <a href=”[profile url]?rel=author”>Google</a>, replacing [profile url] with the link to the author’s Google+ profile pagePromote your Google+ conversations throughout your content marketing outposts: On your website and in blog posts, add +1 buttons so users can effectively like your content even while not directly on their Google+ accounts. This makes it easy to grow your presence, as it allows your community to come to you.
Google+ relies almost entirely on organic growthComplete Your ProfileThis may seem like a no-brainer, but many brand pages do not have a complete “About” section on the profile. Fill out this section completely. Include a link to your business or organization’s website (this is important to receive Verified Page status – more on that later). Add a link to your blog as well. Most importantly: include keyword hyperlinks in the Introduction section.Cover Photo image makes an impression. The profile photo serves as an avatar when using Google+ as your brand – commenting on and +1-ing posts. Updates in users’ newsfeeds will be accompanied by your profile photo, so make sure it’s indicative of your brand.Multiple ManagersClick “Settings” right below where your fans are listed on the right-hand side, and then click the “Managers” tab.Add Users to Your CirclesA brand page can add any other brand page to a circle, regardless of whether that brand page has already done the same. However, a brand page cannot add a human user to a circle unless that user has added the brand page to a circle first. If you’re starting from scratch, begin by having your employees, clients and vendors add your brand page to their circles. Add a Google+ Badge to Your WebsiteA Google+ badge on your website will allow visitors to add your page directly into a circle right from your website.Post (Relevant) Content RegularlyThe best way to keep your audience engaged is to regularly post high-quality content that matters to them. We post daily about SEO and inbound marketing. Informative blog posts and videos typically see high engagement. Find out what your audience is interested in and give them what they want.
Ensure Rich Snippets Are Rendering CorrectlyIt’s not enough to just post your content. You’ll want to make sure it looks as good as possible in users’ newsfeeds. The three biggest components that you’ll want optimized are the featured image, page title and meta description:Utilize #Hashtags in Your PostsDid you know that Google+ supports hashtags in the exact same fashion that Twitter does? It’s true! You can include hashtags to signify certain topics in your posts. This is a great way to increase the visibility of your content to users who may be interested in the topics you post about.Create EventsOne of my favorite features of Google+ is Events. Similarly to how Facebook events work, you can invite users to attend a meetup, conference or webinar. Users can search the database of scheduled public events, which represents an opportunity to get your brand in front of new users who haven’t yet added your brand page to their circles.HangoutsConsider also holding Hangouts, which are live video chats with other Google+ users. You can even record Hangouts right to YouTube for an easy piece of content that can be repurposed. Ideas to get started are: Customer service Hangouts which should be hosted at regular times so customers can ask questions and receive direct answers, product demos, live courses for training and even business seminars. Submit a Page Verification RequestHaving a verified page gives your brand more authority and instant credibility.About 1,000 should still do the trick. Other criteria include:Your Google+ page must be authorized by your commercial entity, organization, brand, or product.Your Google+ page’s profile must contain a link to your organization’s website.Your organization’s website must connect to your Google+ page, by adding the Google+ badge or by adding a snippet of code.Read more at http://www.business2community.com/google-plus/best-practices-for-achieving-critical-mass-on-your-google-brand-page-0283000#RgBjw3YkhKCWhOlk.99
Your post must have been shared for any ripples to be created.