Eight important tips to promote your business on Google+
If you’re a savvy marketer, you’re probably already promoting your business or freelance products and services on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn. But what about Google+? Increasingly, businesses around the world are realising the benefits of using Google+ to help increase awareness and site traffic.
There’s a good reason Google+ is starting to catch on. Because it’s owned by Google, it’s an instant win for SEO – helping to boost your rankings on Google’s results pages. But just like every other social media site, Google+ has its own best practice habits to get your head around if you really want to maximise the benefits for your business.
Eight important tips promote your business on Google+
To help you get started on Google+ and make the most of the benefits, we’ve put together our top eight tips for using Google+ to promote your business.
1) Create a Google+ business page
If you haven’t done so already, create a Google+ page for your business. As with any other social media platform, ensure that you complete your profile and that your images and copy reflect your brand and business offering. It’s a good idea to link to any other social media business profiles or pages you may have too.
2) Choose an easy-to-remember name
When you set up a Google+ profile you’ll be given an ID (the long string of numbers in your profile URL). However, this isn’t very catchy or easy to remember. So instead, create your own ‘nickname’ using gplus.to. Simply choose a name for your Google+ link, add your ID and you’ll be given an easy to remember name that matches your business and other profiles and pages.
3) Add links to your Google+ page
If you have a website or blog, start adding links to pages from it on your Google+ business page. If you paste the url into the ‘Share what’s new’ box, Google will turn it into a link with thumbnail and title. Every time you add a new blog post or page to your website, get into the habit of sharing the link on Google+ too. You can even share your Facebook page and Twitter profile. Remember to add an interesting description, using hashtags for key words to help people find your link.
4) Make sure you’re interesting and relevant
Whatever social media platform you’re on, you always need to bear in mind two things: your audience and your aims. You’re not setting up a Google+ profile for fun – you want it to achieve particular goals, be it raise awareness of your business or drive visitors/potential customers to your site and blog. So make sure that your profile and posts are interesting and relevant to your audience, and will encourage them to act in the way you want.
5) Sign up for Google Authorship
Sign up for Google Authorship and make sure that any content you publish on your blog or website is linked to your Google+ profile. Ensure you have a professional-looking profile photo and include a byline with your name on each page.
6) Add a Google+ badge to your content
Make sure that a growing number of Google+ users are able to share your blog or website content by adding Google+ badges to your pages. It’s easy to do using sites like Widgets.
7) Use Google Circles to organise your contacts
A few years ago, you’d keep physical files of different types of contacts – from agencies and suppliers, to useful leads and new clients. Today, you can do all of that quickly and easily using Google Circles – and manage what information you share with each group.
8) Be proactive!
There’s no point going to all the effort of setting up a great Google+ business profile and diligently sharing your links if your mum is the only one who sees them! So be proactive and seek out people to connect with on Google+. To get started, add existing contacts to your Circles. Then cast around for new people to connect with using simple tools like FindPeopleOnPlus and Google+ Directory.
Are you on Google+ yet? If not, create a profile now and come and find us!
