Social Media Workshop:Google+

Presented by: Steven FisherHead of Social Business, d50 Media

WHAT IS GOOGLE+ AND WHY SHOULD I CARE?

Google+ is Google's Social Networking Initiative.

Google+ is now available to individuals for personal accounts AND now… businesses.

THREE REASONS TO GET EXCITED ABOUT GOOGLE+ FOR BUSINESS

REACH

• Google.com attracts over 1 billion unique visitors per month

• Google+ content is has better results in search engines

TARGETING

• Google+ makes it pretty easy to sort followers into groups (they call them Circles) and send targeted, relevant messages to these smaller audiences.

CONVERSION

• With more accurate targeting, you can use Google+ to move potential clients into the lead pipeline.

INITIAL GOOGLE GROWTH VS FACEBOOK AND TWITTER

It took Facebook and Twitter over two years to reach 20 million users.

Google+ for Business allows you to create five different kinds of pages:

GOOGLE+ ALLOWS YOUR BUSINESS TO HAVE A PRESENCE

• Business/Place• Product/Brand• Company/

Organization• Arts/

Entertainment/Sport

• Other

BRANDS AND SERVICES OFFERINGS LIKE THESE….

BIG DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FACEBOOK FAN PAGES AND G+ PAGES

• No vanity URLs as for right now for businesses so they're stuck like the rest of us with those hideous numerical URLs.

• Unlike a profile where you can follow anyone you want regardless of whether they follow you - cannot follow someone until they themselves have been followed.

• It’s not unusual to see business accounts on Twitter follow a bunch of people, just in hopes of getting a reciprocal follow-back. Google+ won’t reward such behavior.

SEVEN MAJOR GOOGLE+ COMPONENTS

"Huddles" allow for text chatting with a friend or group of friends via mobile or desktop.

"Posts" are for posting status

updates.

"Circles" allow targeted grouping to sort and manage friends along with sharing information with specific circles.

Sparks" for offering videos and articles users might like.

"Photos" are shared libraries from those in your circles and those you post to them.

"Hangouts" are for group video chatting with up to 10 people. You can also watch YouTube videos together.

And if you "like" something?

"DIRECT CONNECT" IS ABOUT TO REVOLUTIONIZE SEO

• Another new feature for businesses with Google+ page is the ability to have their pages found through “Direct Connect” via a Google Search.

• This will happen for any business that Google determines is particularly relevant for a search, if someone searches for the business with a + symbol in front of its name they will taken directly to the Google+ page where they can follow of course.

TREMENDOUS IMPACT ON SOCIAL SEARCH

Google+ is a search engine integrated with real time cloud based communication for sharing all types of media.

Whether you are posting about your brand or a customer is posting about your brand, there are significant search engine optimization (SEO) implications.

Those implications involve getting better search engine rankings and faster, real-time results in those rankings.

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS

Friends on G+ = Better RankingsSince 2009, Google’s Social Search results have had content from people you know to rank higher, when youre logged into Google. 

An example:

Source: Huffington Post

GOOGLE+ ADVANTAGE: FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS

Friends on G+ = Better RankingsSince 2009, Google’s Social Search results have had content from people you know to rank higher, when youre logged into Google. 

An example:

Source: Huffington Post

INCREDIBLE PERSONAL BRANDING OPPORTUNITY

Would love some other great examples of attorneys on G+

Do the following with your brand:

GOOGLE+ BUSINESS READINESS CHECKLIST

Get Profile Page Completed

Start Building Your Circles

Post Content, +1 Content and Add Value

Run some Hangouts and Huddles

Add Sparks to Monitor Conversations

Identify Brand Ambassadors

Engage on a Daily Basis!

People Connect with People.

People need to feel a personal connection to a product or service. Having someone as the face of the brand is important to be a part of the conversation with customers.

Have employees out there as brand representatives. It fosters company leadership and enhances the customer experience.

Create a “Face of the Brand”

Complete Your "About Me" Page

Both the profile tagline and the “About Me” page are SEO friendly. Complete your profile with keyword friendly content and anchored hyperlinks.

Form Google “Circles”

Circles are extremely compelling because you add people dynamically it doesn’t require a two-part permission.

Customize Circles

By customizing your circles, you can segment the type of content you share depending on your audience.

There are default Circles for “Friends”, “Family” and “Following” but you can create any kind of circle.

Circles on interests or likes, circles on specific interests or likes. This will allow you to segment out how you interact and what content you distribute to them.

Google +1 is an entirely different program that Google+ which allows for anyone, even if they are not in Google+ to indicate that they like a page directly to Google.

Utilize the Google+ Button

It has interesting SEO implications because you are indicating in the same fashion to Facebook’s “Like” button that a piece of content should have more relevance.

Create an Editorial CalendarCreate an editorial calendar that is visual heavy and segmented based on your circles.

Complete Your "About Me" Page

Both the profile tagline and the “About Me” page are SEO friendly. Complete your profile with keyword friendly content and anchored hyperlinks.

Monitor Conversations with Google+ “Sparks”

Do a search within Google+

Then click “Save this Search”

With “Sparks” you can do a video group chat with up

With “Hangouts” you can do a video group chat with up to 10 people. The person talking gets the focus so the video picture automatically rotates – very simple yet incredibly powerful when you are having an online conversation.

You can quickly construct or delete groups to have targeted conversations do things like:

•Webinars•Customer Service Chats•Q & A sessions•Video Meetings

HOST SOME GOOGLE+ “HANGOUTS”

Image Credit: 9to5Google

Do the following with your brand:

RECAP: GOOGLE+ BUSINESS READINESS CHECKLIST

Get Profile Page Completed

Start Building Your Circles

Post Content, +1 Content and Add Value

Run some Hangouts and Huddles

Add Sparks to Monitor Conversations

Identify Brand Ambassadors

Engage on a Daily Basis!

Questions and Answers

Steven Fisher

Head of Social Business @d50media

http://www.d50media.com

Twitter: @stevenfisher