A lot of naysayers complain that Google Plus doesn’t have what it takes to help businesses succeed. Those critics obviously haven’t taken a deeper look at what the site offers. When you know these following four secrets, you can maximize Google+ so that it works for your business.
Secret #1: You Need a Google Local Page
Image via Flickr by velorowdy
When it comes to socializing with friends, Facebook is pretty great. When it comes to learning more about local businesses, it’s a total flop. That’s especially true when you compare it to Google+.
When your business has a Google+ Local Page, you get plenty of advantages, including:
- Detailed information that shows up in Google search results
- Integrated Google Maps that can give you easy directions to the business
- A picture of the business
Because this information shows up on Google search results, it doesn’t even matter how many people have Google+ accounts. What matters is that there were 4.7 billion Google searches per day in 2011.
Secret #2: You Need Google Authorship
Google+ lets you set up an Authorship account that connects your blog posts with your Google+ profile. Actually, that’s a rather simplistic way of looking at it, especially considering that Google’s search engine now uses Authorship as a part of its ranking algorithm.
When you set up Authorship, some of the advantages your business gets include:
- The potential to increase page ranking when you establish yourself as a frequent writer
- Making your posts stand out in Google search results by showing your picture and giving some basic information pulled from your Google+ profile
- Better blog authority when people “like” your content
Secret #3: You Have to Get Involved
It’s fun to play on the Internet, but you have a business to run. That’s totally understandable. It’s important to notice that getting involved in Google+ is a part of running your business. Luckily, it doesn’t require as much time as Facebook and Twitter.
Use Google+ to form groups of people in your industry. It’s a great way to keep colleagues informed of market pressures and changing technology without having a lot of personal conversations.
You might feel like you’re wasting time when you spend half an hour on Google+, but you’re actually saving time by communicating with a whole circle of important people at once.
Secret #4: Use Google to Share Exclusive Promotions
Google+ doesn’t actually let you run promotions on its site. You can, however, use your circles to spread information about promotions. Include a link in your post that will take them to a site giving them the details or asking them to participate in some way.
Unlike Facebook, you don’t have to share your promotions with everyone. Instead, you can set up a circle of priority vendors. That makes the promotion truly exclusive. With a site like Facebook, you pretty much send the offer to everyone. What’s so exclusive about that?
What are some other ways that you have made Google Plus for business work?