Last week I wrote about the power of a +1. The question is how do you get them? If you are using Google+, I can give you a few tips to increase the amount of +1s to your article or website. This is especially helpful if you write for B2C or any site that gets a few shares.
Has anyone shared your article?
I would like to use the ripples from my article published on B2C last week for the example. The post currently boasts 750 plus ones and shares. I would like to note that this number is a combination of plus ones and shares put together. The ripples can be found here. Without the plus ones the article currently has 53 public shares. When the article is shared to specific circles, it does not count for the number of shares. However, all plus ones count even if the plus one is on a private share.
Get an extra 1 from each share!
This shows all the people who shared the article publicly with an embedded link. In the sidebar of the ripples page, there is a list of all the people who shared the post along with a link to their post. Go visit each shared post and plus one their post! Even if you have already given your post a +1, every time you plus one a reshare it counts to your total number. So if I have 53 shares of my B2C article and I go and plus one each share, I get 53 more plus ones. Even though the plus one is taking place on Google+, it is integrated with the amount of plus ones on B2C or where ever the article originated.
I usually leave a comment thanking the person who reshared my article since I am already there.
For more information on how to use ripples see this post by Mike Allton.
How to speed up the process
When I publish from my own site, most of the reshares come from me or the page that I manage. It can be tedious going through the sidebar of the ripples page and viewing every post if you have a lot of reshares. Here is how I speed up the process. After I publish a post on my blog, I share it on Google+ using a unique hashtag. My hashtag is #seoEmmett. After I get a few reshares, I go to the search bar in Google+ and put the hashtag in. All of my reshares show up there and I plus their post.
If the reshares of your post come from another source, go to the Google+ search bar and search for the title of your post. If you have a unique post title, the reshares should show up in the search results.
This is a very effective way to increase the amount of plus ones to your article or website if you are getting reshares.
Plus ones count even if the link is not embedded!
The social media gurus are going to be mad about me spilling the beans with this tip. Everyone knows that an embedded image gets more engagement than an embedded link. If you didn’t, now you do!
If you have a photo that goes with your post, embed the photo and leave the link in the description. For every +1 the photo gets, it counts for the link and the article that it links to.
Here is an example of how I used this tip for the article that I published for B2C last week:
Notice that I included a single link in the post as a text link. The photo received 149 plus ones and 50 reshares. Each plus one and reshare goes to the total number for the page included in the text link. Again you can view your ripples and plus one each reshare of the post and each time you plus one a reshare you get credit for your own plus one. It is also good for engagement. By the way the Google plus post says it was the second most shared article. It eventually became number one by using these tips.