Why Your Business Should Be Marketing on Google Plus
Google Plus, whose slogan is “Let’s Meet Here”, has a fresh new design, which rolled out mid-November. Formerly often referred to as the ugly duckling of social media, the new Pinterest style facelift is geared towards businesses building niche communities with similarly interested individuals. This reinvention has the potential to bring even more exposure for you and your business.
Google’s changes include a focus on communities and collections based on user interests in a mobile-friendly format. The platform now functions much better on any device with improved search based on topics and simple hashtag additions.
As the social network moves to a more user-friendly and community driven platform businesses can benefit from an existing reach of of 38 percent of people who are active online in just the United States alone, according to Comscore.
The growth has been steady for Google Plus since it began in 2011, and many of these accounts were generated from Gmail, which is no longer a requirement as outlined in a 2014 article on Marketing Land.
Part of the appeal of Google Plus is the fast connection with users and influencers, integration with YouTube, and the ability to see your posts appear in top search results. The new streamlined version aims to increase more targeted relationships and improve sharing and interactions.
Under the hood here is a glimpse of the old platform, which is still accessible on Google, versus the updated version:
Updated and new posts look like this:
Profiles are now easier to view in the new version like this example from Maximize Social Business:
Compare this with the older format, which is much smaller:
The way a user is added to Circles is also more simplified, with a ‘Follow’ button. Circles can now be seen in the People menu on the left side of the page:
As your business becomes familiar with the newly redesigned Google Plus one of the biggest changes is the Collections feature, which allows users to group posts by topic. According to a post by Google Plus, these are centered on your interests. The post points out that “every collection is a focused set of posts on a particular topic, providing an easy way for you to organize all the things you’re into.”
Collections, which can be accessed at g.co/collections, can provide ideas for content that can be of interest to your target market.
Communities or groups on Google Plus also continue to be a mainstay, and are a great place for your business to build a network and attract more followers to your brand. Google reported 1.2 million new members joining each day, which makes this feature alone worth the time and effort in your marketing mix.
If you haven’t logged into Google Plus for a while this may be the perfect time to start building your network there again and reap the benefits of cross promotion from your website and other social media networks, increased followers, and higher rankings on Google.
Susan Gilbert
Latest posts by Susan Gilbert (see all)
- 12 SEO, Digital Marketing Automation, and Live Chat and Chatbot Tools - January 24, 2023
- 12 Time-Saving Blogging, Newsletter Creation, and SaaS Tools - November 29, 2022
- 12 Customer Communication, Instagram Brand Reach, and AI Marketing Plan Tools - October 25, 2022
