Google Plus or Google Negative? Using Google+ For Business

Google+ was launched way back in 2011, which in the social media world was practically a lifetime ago, yet many of us are still yet to create a profile. There has never really been that buzz around Google+, pronounced Google Plus, so it comes as no surprise that many businesses dismiss this social platform and opt for the more popular options.

Google Plus is a social network which acts as an extension of your Google account. What makes it different to Facebook is that it is much less of a sharing with friend’s platform and more of an interest and community platform. Within this platform you are given the opportunity to choose your interests and follow Communities in which you are interested in.

It may not seem like the trendiest social media platform out there but the truth of it is that because you’re using Google Plus from Google you are improving your relevancy to Google search engines alongside improving your local search visibility which is fantastic for smaller to medium sized businesses.

Aside from improving your ranking and relevancy on the Google search engine, there are many benefits for using Google Plus for your business. It’s a fantastic social media platform that works to a businesses advantage if used in the correct way. Here’s just 10 of the reasons why you should be using Google Plus for your business.

As of the end of 2015, there were 418 million active users on Google Plus. Can your business afford to ignore that many potential customers? Google Plus has more active users than Twitter, one of the most popular social media platforms in the world which only have a mere 332 million users in comparison. Google Plus may not be talked about as much as the other social media platforms but the figures prove that more people are using this platform than you think.

Getting your business to the top of the search engines is the dream. By getting to the top of these pages you are improving your search ranking and your visibility to potential clients. By creating a Google Plus account on the Google network, all posts from your account will be indexed therefore improving all of these things. Google has an astonishing 67% market share when it comes to all of the search engines so it’d be just plain silly to avoid this fantastic marketing opportunity.

A Google Plus page may not seem like the most exciting profile to create but after you have created a Google My Business page and Google Plus profile, the whole Google world opens up to you. Not only do you now have a Google Plus page but you have the ability to show people searching on the Google search engine your website, directions, add photos and give your customers the ability to write reviews and read customer reviews. These additional benefits allow users to suss out your business and makes your company seem a lot more legitimate. Other additions which you can access include Youtube, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Hangouts.

When posting on social networking sites you may feel like you are simply wasting your time sharing with millions of people who are just not interested. Google Plus has come up with a solution for this problem, introducing Google+ Communities. Communities are just that, communities of people who share similar interests as you.

Instead of posting a topic about PPC, for example, and hoping that your customers find your post, by joining a PPC community you can share the post with people who are actually interested in this topic. Communities are free to use and can be as large or niche as your target audience is. You can join as many or as few communities as you want and share different posts with different groups of people. This targeting option gives Google Plus that edge that no other social media platform has.

As a business, it should be in your best interest to create fresh, interesting and informative content for your customers. Customers are nosey and love learning more about products and services. More and more companies are now being found through articles and blog posts written online.

So what is Google Authorship and how can it benefit your business? For every piece of new content which you post on your Google Plus profile, you will be attributed as the author. Your content will be indexed by Google, because you have used Google Plus, and will be available for billions of users to find on the search engine. You’ll also notice that a little author image will appear next to your article snippet on Google. This allows users to see who you are and it gives you authority over your competitors.

Yes, Google Plus is an essential social media tool which all businesses, regardless of their size, should be using. Aside from improve your search ranking and visibility to potential customers, Google Plus has many benefits which it can bring to your business. Google Plus is an effective tool which should be used within your marketing campaign. It is extremely easy to use and can bring exponential growth and traffic to your business.

If you are not currently using social media within your marketing campaign and would like to know more information about the benefits of each social media platform then don’t hesitate to Contact Zelst directly where we will be more than willing to help you to come up with a successful social media strategy for your business.