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Google+ for Business: 5 Things Marketing Professionals Should Know About Google+

Chris Brogan Google+ for BusinessGoogle+ has been on the lips of every online marketing professional since early 2011.  With a base that has now passed 62 million users and the integration of Google+ into Google search, it has become clear that Google+ is here to stay.

As this new social platform continues to evolve it may be difficult to keep up with the latest trends, changes, and tactics for creating an optimized and influential Google+ profile for you and your business.  With recent events and the release of Chris Brogan’s new book “Google+ for Business: How Google’s Social Network Changes Everything” Lee and I thought it seemed a good time to compile some helpful tips of our own and some from Chris’s new book to help professionals take some of the fear and uncertainty out of using Google+.

Author Information in Search Results

rel=author SERP

I’m sure over the last couple of months you’ve noticed author information included in Google search results.  This feature displays a photo of the author as well as an opportunity to add them to your Google+ circles.  Getting Author information to appear in the search results next to content that you create can be accomplished a few ways.

Google suggests adding your name and your email address to each article or blog post and then verifying that same email address within your Google+ profile.  The other option is a good old fashioned link exchange between the content you create and your Google+ profile. Add a Google Profile button to your site or manually add the link using: <a href=”[profile_url]?rel=author”>Google</a> and replace the [profile_url] with the long id in your Google+ profile web address. Then make sure you link to the sites that you contribute to from your Google+ Profile in the area called “Contribute to”. Once you do that, there’s a form you need to fill out.

Google Plus for Search

Google Plus SOPA

Many SEO professionals and Marketers were up in arms after last weeks release of Google+ search functionality.  It appears that Google is favoring it’s own content over others.  Google does include information from some networks such as Quora or Flickr, but at this point is excluding popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.  What does this mean for marketers?

Take full advantage of these changes and post useufl information on your Google+ profile or company page that are relevant to your business and the business problems of your customers. Engage with others and be useful and interesting so that as many other relevant users of Google+ add you to their circles as possible. The larger your network on Google+, the more likely your content will appear prominently in their search results.

“Where Google+ Fits in the Business Ecosystem”

Google Plus Circles

Outside of the obvious need to have a presence in Google+ for search visibility, there are other good reasons for professionals to leverage the social network. In his book, Chris Brogan expresses that how a company uses Google+ for business is up to them, and that there are many opportunities to consider when building a Google+ strategy.  The suggestions in the book are pretty much best practices for any kind of social network involvement and with all the attention being paid to Google+ the past few months it’s a good time to review. Some of the ways you may want to consider using Google+ for your business or professional online presence include:

  • Collaboration
  • Learning
  • Discovery
  • Community Building
  • Contests & Promotions
  • Customer Service
  • Engagement
  • Listening
  • Referrals
  • Sharing

“The Most Important Part of Your Profile: The Introduction”

Google+ Profile Introduction

Building out your Google+ profile is essential for how people perceive your brand. Google+ for Business puts special emphasis on creating a stellar introduction for Google+ profiles.  The introduction field in you Google+ profile should include:

  • Professional Experience:  give your potential customers an idea of what it might look like to work with them.
  • Personal Information: this will inform prospects what matters most to you outside of business.
  • Linking: do not stuff your profile with links but be sure to link to outside resources where appropriate.

“Posting to Build Connections”

G+ Ripples

If part of your marketing strategy is to connect with interesting or influential people, Google+ this is a good way to inspire creativity in your own content.  Some helpful tips for creating content to drive connections would include:

  • Source information from websites that are not always sources.  Posting interesting information from a more obscure sight is likely to catch the attention of new followers.
  • Original content that takes a different stance from the majority of users is likely to get you some attention.
  • Curiosity drives traffic, share some interesting knowledge that you have about something you care about such as music or film.

There is a wealth of information being created each day on optimizing, creating content, and socializing using Google+.  Over the next few months Google will only continue to roll out changes to their Google+ platform and either by incentive or usefulness, Google+ will grow.

What are your most pressing questions about Google+? Has your business created a page yet? How are you getting your staff on board with Google+ profiles or are you focusing more on your brand page?

Be sure to connect with TopRank Online Marketing on Google+ here.

About Ashley Zeckman

Comments

  1. Kevin Long says

    Great post Ashley, ive just put my Google + page together, you have to keep up with the changes, it will be interesting to see how big it does go.

    Thanks

    Kevin

  2. Louis Gudema says

    Hi Ashley –

    Good tips! When Google+ was released, many people asked if we really need another social media site.  But with Search, Plus Your World, Google has made Google+ pretty much mandatory for companies. And this post will help them get the most out of it.

    Louis Gudema
    Vice President of Business Development
    Overdrive Interactive.

    • Anonymous says

      Louis, I’m glad that my tips were useful to you. It seems like sometimes we don’t really have the choice of adding another social media site to our mix. Because if we don’t, our competitors will! Happy reading.

  5. manoj v says

    awesome articles. It’s really hard to find any do follow blogs right now. Highly appreciate your work. Hope they can work.thanks

  6. Anonymous says

    Hey Ashley, It was long awaited that Google is going to make its social media platform more richer and will force guys to use Google+ by this way, Anyways it is very good, I have experienced its almost features, No wonder if it dominates Facebook or twitter.
    http://www.cbil360.com/

  7. Curtis Moore says

    This could be a good thing. Looks like a copy cat of facebook, but the features seem to be better so far.

  8. Katrin Röpert says

    Great article Ashley! Especially the tips on connecting G+ with my articles. I will try that asap! Cheers from New Zealand, Katrin (SEO & Social Media consultant)

    PS: I am happy to connect with anyone on G+ 😉

  9. Dean Saliba says

    Google+ is something that I seriously want to take advantage of this year, the only thing I do right now is share my articles on Google+. I accidently managed to get my profile listed on Google search results. 😛

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  13. Gregory Movsesyan says

    Google+ is another social media nonsense that has to be dealt with. 
    All it’s doing is clogging up the internet with endless amounts of useless information. If your social life is on Facebook then you don’t have a life.

  16. Anonymous says

    Completely agree.  They have started integrating all your Picasa images etc.  They control enough of the internet and your daily actions that they will make it work whether you like it or not.  Get on the train or be left behind

  17. Cloudpublic Relations says

    Good article aboute GOOGLE+.Your  points  of Google+ is to be informative and helpful.

  18. oosman says

    Google+ Pages help you build deeper relationships with customers by sharing your thoughts, links, photos and promotions with the right people at the right times. It is really good addition in social media networking and i guess it will be proved a good plat form for social media networking business.

  19. oosman says

    Google+ Pages help you build deeper relationships with customers by sharing your thoughts, links, photos and promotions with the right people at the right times. It is really good addition in social media networking and i guess it will be proved a good plat form for social media networking business.

  20. oosman says

    Google+ Pages help you build deeper relationships with customers by sharing your thoughts, links, photos and promotions with the right people at the right times. It is really good addition in social media networking and i guess it will be proved a good plat form for social media networking business.

  21. Ruud says

    I think Google+ is the best for networking and collaborating with clients and customers. I also think that every company has to choose for Google+ because Google is pushing it so hard that i think it will be a a force to be reckoned with. I am definitly in although a lot of co-workers don’t see the benefits yet

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