Google Plus is one of the largest social media networks in the world. This is a growing social media platform and one that has some serious potential to help grow your business.
The idea with Google Plus is to improve your overall Google experience, from Gmail, YouTube, and Google’s search engine. By having your company on Google Plus you get more discoverability, deeper engagement, and increased website traffic.
Tip #1: Create a Google Plus company page
It’s important that you have a company page on Google Plus. There is no way you can expect to seriously increase your web traffic if you don’t have a Google Plus company page that includes your website URL, YouTube URL, contact info, and any other links to drive traffic to your website.
Tip #2: Format Your Posts Effectively
One of the great things about Google Plus is that it allows you to format your posts. This means you can make your posts simple to read and skim, perfect for those people who skim when they read, and there are a lot of them. Below is a formatting example you can use to add bold text, italics, strikethroughs and numbered lists to your posts:
Tip #3: Have great headlines
It should go without saying that you need great headlines. Headlines are what get your posts read so they need to demonstrate value to readers instantly. Google Plus has a major effect on SEO so it’s important that your headlines are also optimised so that they appear in search engines.
Tip #4: Use images and animated GIF’s to increase engagement
These are a simple tool you can use to increase engagement. This is also the same for Twitter and Facebook. When you use images with your posts you will get more engagement. Animated GIF’s are also another great way to spice up engagement of your posts. If you want to supercharge engagement then this is a great way to do it.
Tip #5: Managing your circles
Managing your circles is one of the most important things you can do. By creating circles and placing the right people in them you will be increasing your engagement. If you post about web design then make sure you create a circle for web design and add the right people to it.
Tip #6: Be smart with what you share
Once you’ve created circles and added the right people to them you can start sharing posts with them. Many people thing that the “public” circle is the one that will get them the most engagement but this couldn’t be further from the truth. If you use this strategy then you will get a lot of people seeing your posts but you won’t get the engagement with them that you want. The only way to get the engagement you want is to target your posts in the relevant circle. This is the best way that you can engage with prospects and existing customers.
Tip #7: Using Hashtags
We all know about using hashtags in Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. However, you can also use them on Google Plus, they just work a little differently. When you click on hashtags in Google Plus it will pull up all the posts that contain that hashtag and also relevant hashtags. This allows you to find new and relevant connections, get content ideas, measure the importance of topics, and increase website traffic from those who can relate to your content and product.
Tip #8: Leveraging the power of Google Plus communities
Google Plus is a goldmine when it comes to communities online. There are so many communities on Google Plus that any content marketer can use to start sharing their content with. The key here is to find the right communities that align with your company and blog content, then start sharing. However, it’s important that you remember to follow tips 2,3,4, and 7 when posting content.
Tip #9: Fill out the contributor section
All Google Plus profiles should make sure that they fill out their contributor sections of their profiles. This is important because Google Authorship is about to get a makeover and this is a significant change that can affect your search traffic. The reason you need to care about this is because the makeover is removing any pictures of authors in any content. So the best thing for you to do now is to make sure that your blog contributors fill out their Google Plus profiles.
Tip #10: Host a hangout
Hosting a hangout is one of the most effective ways to increase website traffic, arguably the most effective way. This allows you to invite people to be a part of an online discussion to share thoughts about specific topics. When hosting a hangout make sure that you share relevant resources on your website.
In Conclusion
Google Plus is absolutely something you must be using if you want to grow your business. It’s potential to help grow your business is huge and it’s something that can make a massive difference to your revenue and ability to increase your customer base. By using these 10 simple tips you’ll be able to increase the amount of traffic you get to your website, and therefore help grow your business.
For a comprehensive guide on how to make the most of Google Plus, download our free guide here.
Have you had any success using Google Plus to land new customers, or grow your business in some other way?
Christian Michaels