Google+ has proven itself. With more than 150 million viewers, a profile there should factor into your business marketing plan. While it doesn’t (yet) have the same reputation as Facebook or twitter, a Google+ profile will help you optimize your search engine results in ways those other networks will not. The network continues to grow and evolve, so get started now with these Google+ marketing tips:
Schedule Your Posts
Different media are read by people at different times of day (you’re probably not on LinkedIn at 9PM; if you’re female, there’s a greater than 60% chance you check your Facebook before you have breakfast). For Google+, most reading occurs between 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM. While it is not smart to completely automate your social-media efforts, it can be helpful to schedule a couple daily posts to be sure you are staying active. Think old blogs, tips and tricks, or interesting links. The DoShare tool is great for allowing you to post content when it is most suitable to your audience.
Let Google+ Hovercards Help Grow Your Audience
You don’t really have to do anything to make Hovercards work for you; they’re automatic. However, you might want to do some optimisation. “Hovercards” are little snippets that pop up when you hover over someone’s avatar in a post or comment. They include your photo, tagline, location, an add-to-circles option, and a link to start a Google Hangout. Hovercards functions as an excellent personal-branding tool, but take a look at the sample one for The Ibis Network to the right. Note how it’s truncated, “At The Ibis Network, we believe the num…”. This comes directly from your tagline text an your “About” page, but even though you can enter a much longer tagline, only the first 39 characters appear on your hovercard (or 40, if you have exactly 40). Consider optimising your tagline text to get the most bang for your buck when people hover over your picture on your posts or comments.
Make Your Pictures Large
You can crop and edit pictures with Google+ to make them grab more attention and fill up the page better. This will help to create a well-rounded page that is more professional while also generating more leads and increasing brand awareness. Learn more about the correlation between images and brand awareness.
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Define Your Target Audience
Ask yourself, who do you really want to reach? Where can I find them? What’s the demographic? What kind of topics will interest them? If you don’t know the answer to these questions, you can follow some of your competitors and see which content of theirs receives the most engagement. Additionally, you should be using keywords and #hashtags to increase your SEO. We have some more here on how to maximize your SEO potential.
Utilize Google+ Circles
Circles allows users to categorize their followers and target a specific audience. Circles also help by generating new ideas for content by examining discussions within a particular circle. Interacting among your various circles will undoubtedly increase your sphere of influence. A bigger network means more opportunities. We have some beginner Google+ tips, and if you already have a blog, The Social Media Hat has a great tip on how to use Google+ to increase blog engagement.
Why not get started on Google+ by following us or adding us to a circle:
