This is a guest post by Kyle Kam from Affilorama.com
Although it may take Google+ some time to go par with the likes of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks, it can be safely said that Google’s own version of socialization is slowly establishing itself to eventually go up the ranks. Considering that its name is backed by the world’s most popular search engine, Google+ now dons a cape of great potential to be as successful as its competitors and if not, even go past them.
Google+ is still an underdog when it comes to public interest and popularity but creating a niche with them as a part of your content marketing strategy is one way to kick off your business along with creating a page in other sites as well; it’s a fresh and novel take that anyone can use to promote, to advertise and to establish anything or anyone.
Embracing the rest of the world and telling them that you and your business are ready and capable enough can start with Google+.
Start from the Ground Up
To put things in perspective, Google+ is still a social media site that is somewhat on the verge of creating a revolution provided that it is given the needed time to grow and adapt.
For those new to Google, it is advisable for you to create a Google email account first for fluidity and syncing processes although you can directly create a Google+ page from the get go.
Again, basic information is required and once completed; Google+ will redirect you to its home page, which is typically a Facebook-like interface with a minimalist approach. This is now the perfect time for you to complete your public profile and since first impressions last, make it a point to have an established contour but not to the extent that you end up bragging yourself and your business.
Be subtle enough to know that you are just starting to make a name for yourself. Make yourself as some sort of eye candy to the rest of the Google+ community by being honest yet with enough flare for them to visit your page.
Market Yourself
The world is a battleground as they say, and stern competition is within every corner, especially in the World Wide Web. This is no ordinary battleground to say the least: most likely, it’s not only you whose career path goes in steady stream with content marketing.
Eventually, you will find common practitioners and contenders that share your goals and ambitions. Post appropriate photos of yourself, share something that is related to your expertise, and add links to your website or blog and even comments coming from some of your satisfied customers. This will also be the right time to go full blast about your profession: what you are offering, services that you are willing to undertake, packages and the like.
Branding yourself as the best in what you do is just part of the game that will make your business to be on top of the food chain.
Create your Circle and Expand
The Circle in Google+ can be associated with the “Add as friend” in Facebook and “Follow” in Twitter. What makes Circles a good thing is that you can modify them according to your preference and develop a following within that circumference and thereby, adding another point onto your content marketing plans. The more circles you have, the wider the possibility it brings for you to be discovered by the rest of the community.
Use the + to your Advantage
The +1 is situated at the lower portion of every posted stream on Google+ and serves as that of the “like” button on Facebook and similar to a Retweet over at Twitter. Take this to your advantage by giving a +1 to posts made by your clients as this builds an invisible interaction and connection between you and the receiver. This will also be as a rapport builder to your current clients and to those potential individuals that can help in boosting your status.
Socialize More
Mixing business with pleasure (in moderation of course) can also be a good thing especially when you are online and onboard the world’s largest community. The Internet is by far the most populated space with millions of visitors daily and with good purpose: to gain information, seek answers to their lingering questions and meet new people, business partners and relationships as well. With Google+ being a social media site, everything and anything is within a click of a button.
Needless to say that when one talks about social media, it speaks of both professional and laid back environment that everyone can earn, learn and enjoy at the same time.
Take this notion into mind when using Google+ as part of your content marketing strategy: post videos, links, establish a Hangout, comment on other people’s stream and share – everything is beneficial and can and definitely will play a major role in molding your business into success.
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Pete makes a great point. The main thing Google+ has going for it is that it seems that businesses are the key demographic for it. Still being relatively new to it, I think it will become the main platform for marketing…FB has lost a lot of its usefulness and Twitter, though great, makes it difficult with their character limit. Still, a combo of all three (if possible) is best to make sure you hit all corners 🙂
I have had a G+ account for some time now and I am building my connection, however I found the learning curve to be a bit difficult than face book or twitter. I am still finding more new things ever time sign it to post in my account. I can imagine how big the potential is for Google plus but for now I have over eight thousand on face book and about 176 in G+. I learned a few great ideas from your article thank you. I am glad I across your article.
Being active and socialize is the key factor to get maximum result from Google plus. Google plus even affect for search engine visibility.
What I dislike about Google+, though, is it ties my name and picture to my webpages. IDK.. I just worry that the picture of an Indian guy with the name ‘Vivek Saxena’ turns most American customers away because they think it’s spam or something. Am I worrying too much!?
Also, I’ve heard rumors — mind you, these are just rumors — that Google+ hurt some websites — that their rankings drop as per it.
When Google+ initially came out, I was like meh. It was yet another uninteresting social network. I actually felt the same about Pinterest. I was wrong about Pinterest, but I believe I was right about Google+. I don’t use it regularly like I do Facebook. The only reason I see for using it period is because “some people” are on there ad they may see my content. I never visit the site, but I use the sharing buttons. That is the extent that I use their service. A fellow blogger uses Google+ thinking that it must hold more weight because it’s Google, but they haven’t seen great results.
Thank you Kyle for the post and teaching us how to leverage sharing. I like google plus but I feel like it is on the verge of failure at this point.
While it is alive, I might need to re-consider my position however thanks to your post.
By my experience, most of the users of Google Plus are actually brands and IM’ers. So building a network of followers and content syndicators over at Google plus is really something that can readily be done with ease
The Google+ button will play heavily in search engine rankings, any bloggers or websites without this will lose out. I agree with Flo about Facebook using it’s usefulness, but I still think there are other good social networking sites such as squidoo & twitter. Social likes, +’s and tweets will gain more and more value.
Useful article on Google+ i am using G+ but not getting maximum results your article gives me lot of new ideas to work on.
Although more difficult than facebook to learn and use, Google plus is very familiar to webmasters and marketing plans always use it, BUT i dont think it will ever catch up Facebook likes!