When it was unveiled last year, Google+ didn’t make a lot of noise despite its huge press release. This Google social networking site wasn’t a big hit among many especially for entrepreneurs and business marketers. Many business owners and marketing specialists wondered whether Google+ is worth and valuable to keep and maintain as a social media platform to help them achieve their business objectives. On its early months, many people branded Google+ as a “lonely place” because of lesser user engagement. Although a number of people have made Google+ accounts, they didn’t actually use it. This is probably the reason why marketers and entrepreneurs preferred other platforms instead of Google+.
However, regardless of the low turnout on its early days, Google+ is growing with each quarter. The bleak and glum status it has before is now gone because Google was relentless even when Google+ didn’t take off immediately as what was expected. Although it hasn’t really reached the sheer number of users of the leading social networking site today, Google+ is growing at a rate of 600,000+ new members each day currently and its influence it rapidly growing. Business analysts and experts have great hopes for Google+ and even predicted that it will harbour 400 million users by the end of 2012.
With the growth rate of Google+ today, this new social media platform is certainly on its way to create a big impact. It has surely provided that feeling of optimism for many entrepreneurs and marketers who use it to boost their business. Yet, if you are one of those who have not yet appreciated the “PLUS” of Google+, it might be the right time to know the marketing power this social media platform has and (maybe after reading this post) experience to harness the power to your advantage.
So, can Google+ be an integral part of your business marketing strategy? Of course, it is.
Google+ Features: How It Can Help in Your Marketing Efforts
The launch of Google+ is an effort made by Google to tap on the immense possibilities and benefits social networking has for business. Although Google+ has not yet reached what ostensibly more productive social media platforms have, it won’t hurt you and your business to try out what Google+ has in store for you. Google+ has a number of powerful capabilities and a variety of tools which marketers can make use of to boost their marketing efforts and amplify the growth of their business.
- Brand Pages. There are 3 reasons why marketers and entrepreneurs should be excited with Google+ brand pages. These three primary reasons create the better branded experience which Google+ boast of compared to other leading social networking sites.
- Better Search Opportunities.
- More Customization. Unlike in Facebook where ad types are limited to just ads, Google+ brand pages allow a number of branding and creative opportunities. The Google+ pages’ white spaces on the sides of the profile can allow marketers for custom skinning of their brand pages and for the display of valuable media ads.
The advertising opportunities on Google+ brand pages are supported by Google’s AdWords, Display Network, and DoubleClick advertising products. - Better Analytics. Marketers and business owners who have utilized Google Analytics know how detailed their data is (which includes data metrics such as time spent on page, top pages, referring sites, geographic information, etc..). Of course, Google has integrated Google Analytics to Google+ brand pages. This will allow brand pages owners to important insights like who their fans are, what content their fans are looking and reading, and where their fans are coming from.
All the information gathered by marketers can help them in terms of organizing, prioritizing, and creating the content in their brand pages. With this, they can provide a better experience well-suited to their fans’ interests, needs, and wants. Moreover, Google Analytics, together with DoubleClick reporting products, will allow marketers to associate paid media placements to page interaction and help them to optimize and make the most of the value of media spent.
- Google+ 1 Button. This is Google+’s version of the Facebook’s LIKE button. Marketers can incorporate the +1 button specifically in places such as the business webpages, blogs, and AdWord ads. Site visitors can use the +1 button to show they like a page’s content. The 1+ button on a business webpage can directly affect search engine rankings. The number of Google+ interactions on a page plays an important role in search results algorithms and can help any entrepreneur and his business to gain more online visibility.
- Circles. Marketers and entrepreneurs can make use of Google+ Circles which allows them to quickly organize their contacts into groups per interest or other segments. Through this, marketers can easily organize and control the information and content they can share with their contacts. Entrepreneurs can have a circle for co-workers where he or she can share specific business information or a circle just for clients where he or she can provide product/service information. Through Google+ Circles, marketers can easily target their messages to specific consumer groups.
- Hangouts. This is a one of a kind feature or tool which marketers and entrepreneurs can take advantage. Google+ hangouts can allow a whole new way of communicating to others, particularly their target market and/or potential customers. Through hangouts, entrepreneurs can conference to up to ten Google+ users at a time through voice and video. Exchange of information in Google+ hangouts is possible. Entrepreneurs can interact with their fans like sharing their screens, watch videos together, and chat. Hangouts can be used for long distance company meetings and multi-site collaborations, as well as for remote sales presentations, solving customer service concerns, and hosting of groups chats or workshops.
- Recommended Links Feature. This powerful feature probably makes Google+ stand out from other social media platforms. It is available under the “About” section of a brand page which allows a marketers or entrepreneur to add links directing users or their fans to relevant pages to their business websites. It is very useful to encourage click-throughs to landing pages or relevant articles.
Business recommendations via Google+ can certainly become an effective way for any business to generate word of mouth testimonials online. Now since the recommended links feature can have an impact to the algorithms, it is an excellent way for entrepreneurs to gain more traffic to their websites and obtain more online visibility.
Google Plus Benefits
With its numerous features, Google+ can certainly convince any marketer to harness its social media power to boost marketing efforts. Since people want a new way of connecting with their favourite companies, Google+ is simply the great tool for marketers and entrepreneurs to make things happen for their business.
Here are some of the biggest reasons why marketers can be compelled to give Google Plus some of their marketing effort and time.
- Better online visibility and increased site traffic
- SEO benefits and boost in search engine rankings
- Provide superior marketplace impression
- Develop loyal fans, generate leads, and improve sales
- Growth in business partnerships
- Lessening of marketing expenses
So, why wait? If you are an online marketer or entrepreneur, it is high time to jump on the bandwagon to have a leg up as Google+ is slowly becoming a standard in the social media scene. Although its features and functionalities may seem a bit confusing at first, you will certainly learn how it works and how it will benefit your business when you spend time with it. The unique marketing opportunities of Google+ will certainly turn your business 360O for the better.
