Sincerely, what was your first impression of Google+ as a inbound marketing tool? And don’t tell me that you don’t have an account cause if you have a Gmail address by default you have a Google+ account as well. You might have never used it until now, but the first though most people have when hanging out for the first time on G+ is :
Why do I need this social media? I got used to Facebook for improving my profile in inbound marketing.
Here is a video that made me consider Google+ and might make you pretty interested too.
Why is Google+ important for your on-line business ?
The first argument is right in the name. Google is the most popular search engine and it considers the informations that it gets from it’s own platforms more important and more relevant. So from a inbound marketing point of view if you are a influencer on G+ it will pay off better than other platforms like Facebook or Twitter.
The second most important part is that it’s all integrated. If you are using gmail accounts you basically check your email and notifications at the same time. Plus if you choose to promote yourself in inbound marketing by creating content on Blogger even more so. Your about page on Blogger is connected to your G+ profile.
The user manual for Google+
The annoying thing is that when you start using it, it feels like you’re a lost squirrel in a big weird forest. To better use this platform you have to first understand their train of thought .
I think Google’s idea for this social media platform was to make it more like real life. Not everybody is your friend and some people you interact with are in more than one group. And then again some news you share only with some close circles and other are public information. Another interesting aspect is that +1’s become recommendation in your searches. It’s like having a big conversations with people you know, all the time you are on the internet.
Google+ v.s. Facebook
You are probably familiar with Facebook so I will explain different important aspects of Google+ and i’m going to compare it to Facebook so I can get you out of this dark forest.
1. Likes = 1’s . The principal is the same, you are interested in a post you like it, or in the case of Google+ you +1 it. The only difference is that when you search on Google a topic that some of the people you know have appreciated, below the meta-description you will find their 1’s as recommendation.
2. Sharing is different in Google+. In Facebook you basically have 2 groups of people Friends and Acquaintances. In Google plus you have as many groups of friends as you want. They’re called circles. When sharing a post you can choose to make it Public, or share to 1 or more of your circles or communities. You should be aware that for every group or community you choose to share in, you get a distinct post on your profile.
3. Adding people is a bit different too because on Facebook you can add someone and decide if he is a Friend, a Close friends, a Acquaintance or put him in a list you have created. But you have to choose one and only one. When in real life things aren’t like that. You might work with someone that finished the same high school as you and then you would like to add him into two groups. You can do that on G+ by adding one person into as many circles as you consider relevant.
Features that can make a difference in inbound marketing
There are 3 aspects that are very interesting for a content creator related to Google+. These aspects can not be associated with any features found in Facebook so I will talk about them in the following lines.
1. Authorship
This is a great way to make yourself known through your content. If you use the Authorship feature ( more information on how to make this connection) then your G+ picture profile will appear in the left of your articles, in Google’s search results of any of your articles. A click on the picture takes them to your profile, where the reader can find more information about you and even interact with you, the Author. From this point of view it is very important to complete your profile with all the information for better inbound marketing. If you have a clean profile they can find references about you and thus trust of your content more.
2. Hash-tag searches
If you use G+ you have seen that every one of your posts gets hash-tags. You can see then in the upper right corner of your posts. You can add them yourself in the text of the post but if you don’t Google will choose some of the words in your post to use as hash-tags. If you click on one of them, the platform will offer a few related posts. All this happens in the space the post took. The five suggestions are a list of related hash-tags that you can search through. The search is pretty much the same as searching a topic on twitter,but a bit more complex. You can see all the results based on your keywords, the one that are specific to your network, or search people and communities.
3. Communities
There are great places to start conversations up with people interested in a specific topic. The problem is that most people now don’t use them in a social kind of way. They just share their post there but don’t necessary interact too much. Maybe they are unaware that you can choose to not get notifications from specific communities on your email and so you never actually see their posts. You can do the same if someone is link-dumping (meaning they spam you with their post in which they don’t necessary strike up discussions they just put their link out there). You can add all your spammers in one circle and change the settings so you don’t get notifications from them. You still have them in your circles but you don’t actually interact because they post to many links. You can see their activity whenever you choose to visit their circle.
Taking the time to explore this social media platform for inbound marketing will pay off. Google+ is more focused on getting the right information to the right people, and this will especially help you find the people that are actually interested in what you do and write about. So I hope we will interact more on G+ from now on.
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