I talked a little in my last blog about why your business might want to have a presence on Google+ and I shared a few details about what Google+ actually is. I have some great ideas, as well, for actually using this wonderful social media platform and I’d like to share them with you today. Engagement on Google+ is similar to Twitter and Facebook. But in general you engage through:

• Image sharing: Images have an important role in the Google+ community so make sure you make generous use of appropriate images in your posting.
• Connecting with Influencers: You want to look for and connect with clients and customers, prospective clients and customers, business contacts, and, most particularly, influencers. Don’t spam anybody, of course and make sure your content is professional and appropriate to the circle to which you are posting.
• Creating Good Content: You want to give people a reason to get excited about your business and your brand so consistently developing good content is important. As mentioned, you can determine who gets to see which content you post, which allows you to be creative and expressive in your postings.
• Engaging: As with any social media platform, it isn’t just about broadcasting your message. The idea is to start the conversations that might lead to a sale and you’re doing that by building a community of people who know they need what you offer. To take full advantage of the opportunity, you need to engage them – “like” (+1) their content, comment on it and be available to converse.
• Responding: If a follower asks a question or comes to you for help with an issue, answer their questions and respond to their inquiry.
• Frequency and Scheduling: You can schedule your posts with a platform such as Hootsuite, so play with timing a little to see what time of day is best to post. This may change over time so be sensitive to changes. 
• Avoiding Spam: As with all social networks, don’t annoy people with endless announcements of upcoming events. The idea is engagement, not continuous self-promotion, and you will irritate the very people with whom you would like to do business if all you’re doing is promoting yourself.
• Using +Name: You can give your Google+ contacts a shout-out and link directly to their Google+ page by typing a “+” and then typing their name. This will trigger a notification to them to tell them that you’re talking about them. Google+ facilitates the process with a drop-down. This is important when you’re including an author name for a post you want to share, for example. 

Implications of all of this activity:

Although it’s a relative newcomer to the social media game, it’s likely that Google+ is destined for greatness. As a Google property, it connects to all of the major Google channels that we’ve come to depend on, such as Google Search, Google Drive, Gmail, Analytics, Adwords, Calendar, YouTube, and plenty more.  And many people feel that activity on Google+ is likely to boost your search engine results as a result of its connection to Google.

Provided your customers are on Google+, you have a prime opportunity to keep your company name in front of them. And although the business applications of G+ are still evolving, a presence there is likely to at the very least boost your search engine results and give your potential customers another opportunity to find you, and get an impression of your business and your brand.

Me and my team members have plenty of other ideas for using social media for business and if you would like to talk about how we might be able to support you in growing your Google+ or other social media presence, please contact me at susan@crossmancommunications.com and let’s book a conversation about how we might be able to help.