Google+ seen from a business perspective

Even though it’s the second biggest social media platform, Google+ is not just less popular but also misunderstood by a lot of social networking fans. Most businesses aren’t aware how to use Google+ to their advantage professionally. You may or may not believe it but the fact is that Google+ is undoubtedly the most important social network not just from a networking point of view but from an online marketing perspective as well. Both Google Authorship & Google+ can play key roles when defining your content based SEO strategies. Let’s have an indepth look at Google+, its overview, & benefits. A brief introduction Google+ is a social networking website launched by Google on 28th June, 2011. Despite the failure of Google Buzz, Google+ saw a slow & a steady rise of users from its inception itself. Initially it adopted the invite model, but due to the increasing popularity of other social networking platforms, Google+ made it open to all. Early reviews turned out to be really positive due to the fact that Google+ integrated all the qualities of already popular social networks into one hybrid network. Not many individuals & businesses are aware of the fact that with a continuous decline of Facebook fans over the globe, Google+ has risen as the second biggest social network in the world. Reasons for using Google+ It allows you to post text based content, pictures, links, and videos, just like you can do on Facebook. It has introduced the concept of Circles letting the people to follow each other on the basis of various criteria or interests. Hangouts is another unique service from the Google+ stable that is basically a text or video chat that can be hosted by several people at once. Quite recently, Google+ introduced a lot of new features allowing users to edit images with high picture editing capabilities. Let’s have a brief look at all the nice features within the Google+ platform. Smooth integration Various tools are integrated into Google+ to manage & share content across all the services provided by Google. +1 signals +1 in case of Google+ is similar to a Facebook Like. It determines the popularity of brand by being a ranking signal. Google Authorship rnIt allows to let you connect your content across the web, letting Google know what exactly have you created & also that it is you from where the content has originated. More quality content will lead to more sharing. This leads to Google taking you more positively & hence enhancing the overall Author Rank. Hangouts With the help of Hangouts, the users can schedule various group events such as an online question & answer session where a lot of people participate at a time making it one giant chat room. Communities rnIt allows to participate or create in the focus groups of companies or individuals in particular. This is an excellent way to enhance the awareness of a specific brand. It builds trust & direct feedback could be taken from the customers. A group created by you leads to your brand community which is closely aligned with your values. This indirectly helps in nurturing relationships by positioning you as an authority. Events It works in a similar manner as that of Facebook Events. But in case of Google+, it offers a high interactivity level. This means everybody who uses Gmail can easily add an event using Google Calendar. Hence invitations will automatically go to people on a specified date that you have selected. Also, onsite progress & webinars can also be promoted using events. Business pages Again it works in the same fashion like Facebook business pages. You need to be a regular Google+ member for this. With the help of a business page you can index your website on search engines in a neat manner, link your business website to the page, and provide constant updates regarding your business, products, or services. Insights rnGoogle+ has recently introduced the analytical insights to see key statistics such as how many views your business listing have received, what is the number of people that have got engaged to your website & in the local search how many times users have actually tried to locate you. Google Places They are the separate listing pages of a business which allows displaying a Google Map for location, contact details, opening time, photos & reviews. It provides you with yet another indexable page that can drive traffic through enhanced visibility in the search results. Get the most out of Google+ Finally, let’s have a glimpse at some of the most useful tips to use Google+ in the most optimal way. Pick the visual way It is a better known fact that people will respond in a much better way to videos or images as compared to plain text. A community thread should be started You should start a community which will help you out in the knowledge sharing process. Do not talk about yourself or your business; instead give more preference to user interests & their needs. Google Authorship is necessary Google Authorship is a must for having more visibility in organic search. It is the sole driving force behind Author Rank which acts as an effective & an efficient ranking parameter. Distribute content from all over the place Share content from different users enabling you to be more appealing & interesting. Curating a wide range of content based on the same subject will provide you with a high level of authority & will help you to position yourself as a visionary leader. The profile should have every single detail Ensure that you are using a proper cover photo, profile image, & mention all the details of the company in your business profile. This will surely help you to grab the attention of a lot of people & ultimately make a big impact. In addition, links should be provided not just in your website but even to your social network profiles as well as your blogs. Optimize the images properly You should be able to edit your uploaded images. This functionality is especially good when using an image editing software such as Photoshop. The image editing function in Google+ allows making modifications related to adding text, cropping, & auto color fixing. Summing Up Holding a second spot in the world’s social networking arena, Google+ continues its momentum. Slowly & gradually it is becoming popular both as a communication as well as an SEO tool. While the Google+ impact on SEO is still a debatable issue, it is truly believed that Google+ will sooner or later become a critical part of an SEO strategy, which Google is emphasizing more on the social ranking signals.