5 No-Brainer Reasons Google Plus Is Right for Your Business by Janet Johnson

Many businesses are still skeptical about Google+.

They don’t know if having a Google+ business page will actually add any value.

I don’t blame them — Google hasn’t done the best job explaining the network.

But that’s no excuse for ignoring Google+!

Google’s social network is important — for many reasons!

And here are 5 no-brainer reasons to get your business on Google+ today.

5 No-Brainer Reasons Google Plus Is Right for Your Business

1. You’re On Google+ Already — and Don’t Even Know It

Do you have a Gmail account? Then you’re on Google+.

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When you set up a Gmail account, you automatically set up a Google+ profile, too.

To get to Google+, log into your Gmail account. In the upper right corner you’ll see your name (or the name that you used to set up the account) with a + sign in front of it. Click it to be taken to your Google+ profile.

It’s very important to at least add a good head shot & fill in your profile “About” info.

How should you fill out your profile? Here’s an excellent explanation:

• How to Write an Effective Google Plus About Story and Introduction

2. Local Google Listings Connect to Google+

For a local business, a Google Places listing is one of the most important online listings you can have. Google gives preference to the Places listing when a city is entered into the search bar.

But, what many businesses don’t realize is that Google integrated the Places listings with Google+ a while back.

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Now, when a Google Places listing is clicked it links to what’s called a “Google+ Local Page”. This page must be filled out by the business. Many haven’t been & some even link to the wrong Google Places page.

An easy way to find out which Google+ Local page links to your Google Places is to type the name of your business in the search engine. Find the Places listing (it should look like the below example) and click “Google+ Page.”

If you’ve properly set up your Google+ page & linked it to your Places listing, it should contain a profile picture, cover photo, about information, links, etc.

Here’s an example of what not to do:

3. It’s Easy to Connect with Potential Clients & Influencers

Other social networks have become so big & noisy that it’s hard to actually have meaningful conversations. That’s where Google+ excels.

People on Google+ take their time to converse.

For a major social network, Google+ is still small. It’s not as crowded as Facebook, which makes it a lot easier to chat with others.

4. It Helps Your SEO

The people you have in your Google+ circles & interaction you receive on Google+ posts can affect how you & your business appear in Google search results.

In other words, Google+ IS Google. Need I say more?!

Using Google+ can improve your SEO!

Your Google+ posts are indexed by Google & can appear in search results. And what business doesn’t want to be found on page one of Google?

Below is an example of a Google+ post that was indexed on page one of the search results.

5. Hangouts On Air Are AWESOME!

If the first 4 reasons in this article don’t attract you to Google+, the Hangouts On Air feature should because it’s a game changer!

All businesses should use video to build rapport with clients & potential customers. But you used to need lots of equipment & it took lots of time & energy to create videos.

Not anymore!

Now you just need a smartphone & Hangouts On Air.

Google explained Hangouts On Air like this:

With Hangouts On Air, you can broadcast live discussions & performances to the world through your Google+ home page & YouTube channel. You can also edit & share a copy of the broadcast.

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The possibilities are endless. Here are just a few of the powerful ways you can use Hangouts On Air:

• Meeting / Consultation
• Video
• Interview
• Client Testimonial
• Show — Video or Podcast

Hangouts are automatically recorded right to your YouTube channel. When you’re done recording, you can edit right inside YouTube OR download, edit & upload.

Be sure to add keywords in the title, body & tags to give you a better chance of getting indexed by the search engine. Since Google has given preference to Hangouts On Air over other videos uploaded to YouTube, your chances of front page results are even greater with a Hangout!

I edited this Hangout with a few keywords & within minutes, these were the results:

Conclusion

Unfortunately, bad press gave Google+ a bad rap — and undeservedly so!

Small business owners are afraid of Google+… and that fear must end. Google+ gets better every day.

If your business cares about how Google & video affect your results & sales, then I think it’s best to look deeper into what this platform can do for you.

Google+ has been a tremendous asset for me!

Courtesy of Post Planner, Inc.

SMToolbox: Be More Effective on Google+ with CircleCount by Steve Rayson

How effectively do you use Google+? CircleCount is on a mission to help you better understand Google+ and improve your performance on the network. This week in the Social Media Toolbox we take a look at why you should be using Google+ and how CircleCount can help you use the platform more effectively.  

 

Why Google+?

Despite a tentative start Google+ is growing in importance as a social platform. At the end of October 2013 Google reported there were 300 million monthly active “in-stream” users. These are people that see or visit the Google+ content stream. 

 

Marketers and SEO agencies have found that Google+ helps improve SEO results. Google+ posts are indexed by Google very quickly and they are treated like any other web page; hence the posts gain page rank, give page rank and appear in search results.

 

Content creators understand the importance of Google+ in terms of authorship and authority building. Google+ is the backbone of the Google eco-system, which is seen most clearly through Google authorship, wherein Google+ validates your profile and helps you gain authority. Authorship also places your Google+ profile picture next to your posts in search results.

 

Those trying to build communities are finding success with Google+ Communities and increasing interaction through plus ones, sharing, comments and Google Hangouts. According to CircleCount, there are now over 200,000 Google+ communities.

 

As a consequence, Google+ is growing in importance as a social platform. The challenge is to make sure you are using it effectively.

 

How CircleCount Can Help You

CircleCount is a free tool that helps you understand Google+ and provides you with extensive statistics on your performance and influence.

 

Circles are one of the key features of Google+. You can create circles and include people in your circles to follow them. However, you can only have a maximum of 5,000 in your circles even though you may be followed by, say, a million people. CircleCount.com tracks these Google+ circles.

 

CircleCount shows you the most active, most followed and most influential people on Google+ for pre-defined categories. These tend to be the people with really large followings, and I personally think it would be more useful if you could search for influencers in more specific topic areas. However,  you can filter by region, which helps narrow your search. 

 

CircleCount provides a wide range of extensive Google+ statistics, including the highest ranking profiles, pages and communities on Google+. It also shows the posts that are the most reshared and which receive the most plus ones. However, for me the real benefit is in the personal data and insights that it provides. You can add your Google+ profile (using the URL of your Google+ profile or your custom Google+ URL) and CircleCount will track the circles you are included in. It will then provide you with detailed information about the following:

• Your profile and followers
• The performance of your posts
• Your engagement and interaction

Your profile and followers

CircleCount provides you with a detailed overview of your profile, including a chart that maps the growth in your followers. I suggest you start with the Dashboard, which gives you your ranking in your local country and globally.

 

There are also a range of useful profile statistics about your followers, sharers and communities. You can also now get statistics for your Google+ pages. One of the many features is ‘Your Follower Map,’ which provides you with a nice heatmap of where your followers are located. Mine is shown below.

Performance of your posts

CircleCount helps you assess the performance of your posts and your influence on Google+. It does this by tracking your posts and the activity they generate, such as comments, plus ones and reshares.

I like the grid report it provides, which gives you a clear visual picture of the performance of your posts (see below). The red bar shows no activity, such as no plus ones, no comments, etc. You can easily re-sort the table by column for a more detailed analysis.

Engagement and interaction

CircleCount shows who has shared circles that include you, who is following you, and who is sharing your posts. This enables you to reach out to people that already like and share your content.

CircleCount also provides useful charts showing when people engage with your posts. By reviewing these charts you can schedule your posts at a time when you are likely to gain more engagement.

How well did you use Google+ in 2013?

CircleCount introduced a nice new feature for the new year, which is your own profile infographic called “Your 2013." Click this option and you will get a complete summary of your activity in 2013, including:

• how many public posts you made
• how many plus ones they received
• how many reshares they received
• how your followers grew over the year

I suggest you start here, review your CircleCount infographic and then consider how effectively you used Google+ last year. If, like me, you need to be doing more, then CircleCount is a great tool to help you.

 

Courtesy of Social Media Today LLC

JPC does NOT rely solely on Google Analytics to provide website traffic reporting and analysis for their clients.  We use companies like CircleCount, Web-Stat and many more for FULL reporting!!
Contact us and visit: http://www.janetpennconsulting.com/website_traffic.html