A Guide to Google+ for Small Businesses
With more than 340 million users and adding 25,000 new users every day, Google+ is no longer a “ghost town.” You might be missing out on reaching your target audience if you choose to ignore this social network.
So what is Google+?
Google+ is a social network where you can post content and information, join communities and add individuals and businesses to circles. Circles are a good way to segregate types of people you want to communicate with.
Here are a few reasons why small businesses should consider Google+:
- SEO: Google+ integrates with all of Google’s other services like search, YouTube and Places. Any business with a Google+ page will receive an SEO boost and, thus, higher online visibility.
- Hangouts: Hangouts can be a user-friendly and innovative method of reaching and engaging customers, existing and potential. Hangouts can also be used within businesses to brainstorm and for troubleshooting, given how easy they are to setup and use, along with being able to share documents and presentations with one another.
- Reaching the early adopters: Google+ is a great way to reach out to the early adopters of a new social marketing platform. This is especially great if your business falls within the technology or Internet industries.
- Effective content distribution: Google+ allows pages (and people) to share content with specific groups of people (circles). This enables businesses to reach out to the right people with the right content and segment their audience.
Setup
To set up your page, just log into your Google Places for Business account. Or you can set up a new Google+ business page from your own individual account.
Posting on Google+
Posting on Google+ is simple. You can enter your text and/or a link in the box, choose which circles to share it with and whether to make it public. To tag someone in a post you just write a “+” sign in front of their name.
Communities
There are some excellent and active communities on Google+. It is worth looking around for good communities related to the field of your business. Think of communities as being similar to LinkedIn groups. Don’t just talk about yourself or your business. Keep posting interesting content like links and opinions as you would in any networking situation.
Hashtags
Hashtags on Google+ have similar uses as on Instagram and Twitter. Using a hashtag will enable your content to show up when a user searches for that hashtag, which ensures your business is visible to people who are interested in that type of content.
To summarize, The SEO power of Google+ should not be underestimated as it has been touted as the “social layer” of Google and is slowly being integrated with the whole of Google’s ecosystem.
Here is an interactive infographic by simplybusiness.co.uk on how small businesses can use Google+.
Want to learn more about trade show marketing? Read our articles on how to create unique content and use banner stands to market your trade show.