We know for most businesses the term ‘social media’ gets them running to the hills. But there is one platform that we think you should make the effort with this year and that’s the new kid on the block Google+.
Our mantra for Social Media is start with one platform. Get to know it really well and get it working for you before you move to another platform, so if you haven’t started yet you might want to consider using Google+ first. Why? well because this platform will reap benefits in two ways, first, socially – you can connect to some really good people and businesses on Google and the second point is that we believe it will help with your overall SEO efforts too. So a real bang for you buck if you can just get started.
So a little about Google+
Like other social media platforms Google+ allows you to easily share things across the web and enables the social recommendation or vote that we are all striving for. So the first thing that you have to do is set up a Google+ page. This is the online home for your business on Google.
To achieve this you need to set up a Google profile first and then set up a page for your business. Whilst the two are connected, other users will not see the connection, they can follow either you personally or your business page. Its an easy process to set both profiles up and it is a step by step process.
Of course the deeper you can fill it the better it will be, so do spend a bit of time making sure your business description is right etc. (one tip I can give you is the profile picture which should be your logo needs to be 250px x 250px, and the long picture (cover photo) is 940 x 180). Also make sure you add all the other places your business is found on the internet, your website, your YouTube channel, your twitter account.
The tricky part is now you have to get your personal followers to add your page to their circles, you need to give them a reason ‘ follow our page for tips and exclusive discounts’ or something similar will do the trick.
You will need to toggle between your personal profile and your business page (similar to Facebook if you know that platform) to post information – just hover over the pages icon on the left hand side and choose between your page or profile. Similarly to other platforms, images and videos work well on this platform so try to share this type of content for maximum impact – of course your editorial calendar will help with this.
Google have also produced their own tips and strategies guideline to grow and engage your following which is a handy resource to read through. You can download it here.
You can find us here, do invite us to follow your business page as well, we will put you in our circles! Go on give it a go, you know where we are if you need help!