Launched in November 2011, the Google+ Business Page has the potential to become the leading social networking and online marketing tool for businesses. If you’re yet to sign up, or are weighing up the benefits, never fear. Read on to find out exactly what Google Plus is, and exactly how it can benefit your business.
What Is Google+?
Powered by Google, Google Plus is a new social media platform and great marketing tool. With over 1 million unique visitors a month, compared to Yahoo’s 600,000, the search engines latest brainchild has the potential to be huge. Google+ currently has more than 90 million users, competing with Facebook’s 800 million.
What makes Google+ different is its influence on search engine results. The power of personalised search could prove extremely attractive for many of your clients. If they’re connected with some of your previous and current clients, your page shows up in a personalised search engine results page. This could then persuade them to buy from you too.
Similar to the other social media pages, you can create both a personal and a business Google+ profile. Before jumping on the proverbial bandwagon, it is important to understand just what Google+ has to offer, and how it can benefit your business.
What are the Benefits of Google Plus?
As well as appearing in personalised search engine results, a Google+ page also boasts a number of unique benefits for your business. The sites features include aspects from Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn and even Skype. While this might seem a bit much, each feature could have a really positive impact on your business.
The ‘+1’ feature is very similar to Facebook’s ‘liking’ feature. You can place the ‘+1’ icon on any page of your website to signify that it is both important and recommended content. By clicking on this, your clients will share this information with their friends. The number of ‘+1’s’ you have received can help increase your business’s search engine rankings.
You can create a number of business ‘Circles’ to tailor and target the information you send out to your connections. For example, you can have a Circle for past clients. Here, you target information about new services and offers that they could benefit from. You can have any number of ‘Circles’ which helps you target specific information to specific people.
Another unique feature of Google+ is the ‘Hangout’ feature. A Hangout is, put simply, an online video conference. This allows you to communicate with colleagues and partners all over the world. This is a great tool in terms of marketing as you can regularly keep clients, colleagues and partners up to date with your work.
Is Google Plus Really Better Than Facebook?
There have been murmurings amongst both businesses and personal users, that Google Plus could be better than Facebook. The two social media platforms share a number of similar features, but Google+ has even more unique and beneficial ones.
Google’s social networking effort is also more business orientated that its rivals. Specific business pages enable users to join your Circle, +1 all of your information, and share it with their friends. This strikes a much needed balance between a personal and professional relationship with your clients.
The personalised search engine options are great for optimisation and search rankings. Your business page is much more likely to show up in people’s personalised search engine results with the help of the +1 feature.
It is important for businesses of any size to implement a social media strategy. And any strategy should include Google+. Marketing and communication with clients is changing, and it’s vital your business moves with the times.
If you would like to get started with Google Plus, contact BirdAndCoCreative.co.uk today. The company specialises in social media and online marketing, graphic and web design in Worcestershire.