Add Google+ to your Social Media Marketing Package

Businesses – it’s Time to Get Involved.

With all the hype that preceded the introduction of Google+, the realization that it was not “ready” for business use was more than a little disappointing for most business owners. Well, the wait is over as Google+ for business goes live, ramping up the power of Social Media Marketing with the known SEO driver in video.

From a recent Hubspot ebook on Google+: “We want to help you make the same kinds of lasting connections with your customers online the way you can in real life,” wrote Dennis Troper, Product Management Director, Google+ Pages.”

Businesses, those already in the Social Media space and those that aren’t, need to make Google+ a focus for their marketing efforts. Like other Social Media sites with business potential, Google+ offers unique benefits to companies that participate as well as drivers to propel businesses who are not using the site for their brand to get involved.

These nine points will help any business understand the benefits and limitations of the site. However, keep in mind, it’s with a combination of the Google+ profile and the business page that brands can take the most advantage for their brand development.

1. A Google+ page must be added to the site or must be mentioned by a site member before you can add people to your Circles. (Circles are like Groups on LinkedIn or Facebook.)
2. Pages, like on LinkedIn and Facebook, are built for entities. Profiles are for people.
3. Page defaults are set to make the page public. If you want to keep you page private while building it out, you need to manually set it that way.
4. Google+ pages have a +1 button. As defined by Google, “+1 gets conversations going. Click the +1 button to give something your public stamp of approval. Then, if you want to share right away, add a comment and send it to the right circles on Google+.”
5. Pages can’t +1 other pages. Pages have to be approved by site users with profiles.
6. You must have a Google+ profile to receive email notifications or texts.
7. If you unfollow a Google+ page, it was automatically unfollow you.
8. You must be connected in Circles before a Google+ page can even mention you.
9. Local pages have special fields so users can find any businesses’ brick and mortar location.

The best way to get started with Google+ is to simply get started. Create a page, upload your logo and begin accessing the Circles of site users that fit your target niche. Chances are, your competition is already there.