Growth hacking in Google Plus for Business: 20 Smart Hacks

What do you associate with using Google Plus for business? With the fact that no one uses it as intensively as Facebook or Twitter. Of course, not. I am afraid you are under a misapprehension as this social media network officially connects 2,5 billion people all over the world. By the way, 10% of them update their accounts regularly (some of them use social media management tools to automate it, however), which means there are not as much as 250 million active users.

Is Google Plus great for SEO? Hot! Google Plus is a powerful weapon in the marketing arsenal. Judge for yourself: when you share posts with links on social media, it influences your page rank in a positive way. And the social media network that brings about maximum results is Google Plus.

Be sure to broadcast content you share on your blog to Google Plus Business pages. This social media network allows moderating content at any time after the publication is made (read “add fresh keywords”). It is really important for search optimization. In its research in 2015, Moz announced that content shares to Google Plus are one of the main factors that influence page ranking in the search results.

This is not the only advantage of using Google Plus as an element of your social media marketing strategy. We’ll discuss other tools you can take advantage of a little bit later. For now, let’s take a look at SEO. Why should you can? The answer is that Google ranks higher popular pumped profiles and pages as well as optimized (with keywords) publications.

What to choose: a profile or Google Plus Business page?

Just like Facebook, Linkedin, Google Plus offers to create not only a personal account but also a Google Plus business page. And if a profile represents user’s info, a business page gives information about a company and encourage users to share business updates on it. The main difference between a business page and a profile are:

Business page:

• is created in Google My Business
• can have multiple administrators (up to 50)
• can offer statistics which include reach, audience, and a number of posts
• also, a Google page can be integrated with Google maps

Profile:

• is created automatically when you start using Gmail
• has only one owner, who can manage it
• do not offer any statistics and shows only a total number of views.

If you have already started developing a page and now you realized that it is a profile, no worries. In Google search results, both business pages and profiles can be shown. If you have both a profile and a business page, Google gives preference to a page that is more popular.

How to optimize your Google Plus profiles and Business pages?

1. The more followers you have, the higher position you’ll get. The number of followers (especially authoritative ones) gives weight to your account, and, as a result, Google has more trust in it. In fact, there’s no direct correlation, however, SEO specialists who work with the Google search engine agree that a live profile or page, which is regularly updated, increases the chances to appear on a higher position in the Google search.

How to get more followers?

• Promote your Google Plus Business page or profile on other social media networks by adding links to posts.
• Add like and share buttons of social media networks to your blog or web page. You can also encourage users to subscribe and join you on Google Plus right on your web page. For this aim, you can use official Google Plus widgets and badges.
  
• Promote your Google Plus page by using such tools as comments under articles, signature in emails, and even forums.
  

2. Do not include keywords to the name of your channel unless you want to connect it with a Youtube channel. In most cases, it may look unprofessional, and moreover, it has a very low efficiency.

3. Add the most effective keywords to the description of the page.

Also, remember about filling out a form in the about me section. Be sure to include your website, phone number, and location filling it with keywords. The reason why it is important is that this information will be shown as a meta description here.

Posts on Google Plus

Here’s how the structure of an average publication on Google Plus look like:

1. The name and a brief description of the Google Plus Business page must contain your keywords with a high search frequency. The reason for it is that Google ranks the first sentence of the brief description (or a post) as a name.
   

   How to choose perfect keywords?

   For this aim, you can use the search in the social network itself. You can also find keywords by using such services as Google Keyword Planner or Semrush. Both instruments have free versions and can give you comprehensive information on frequent requests, their popularity in a region, trends, and competition.

   
   
   

2. Mention other people when updating status. To do it, click the “+” button and start typing a name of a person you want to mention in the publication. Google+ will let you know who is available in your Circle. You can use it as a tool of your influencer marketing when you’re letting influencers know about your content updates. You can also mention your brand evangelists who will spread your content with lightning speed. However, know the limit as overdoing it you risk to become annoying.
   

   What are other ways to engage influencers?

   • Share a publication with a Circle a user you are interested in is a part of.
   • Add them to your Circle.
   • Answer their comments.
   • Mark them on photos.

    

3. Why to use hashtags in your posts? Search by hashtags works in Google Plus like a charm: it only shows relevant hashtags, and outputs the results in a chronological order. What’s more, here groups and communities are selected by the number of subscribers and their relevance.
   
   

Lead generation in Google+

• Add to friends those Google+ users who have a target audience similar to yours. Answer comments, place +1 to publications so that you were noticed.
• Find several communities popular among your subscribers, and then join them. Every brand has its evangelists, so the aim here is to find evangelists who would be happy to share your content with the community. If you think you don’t, then comment on posts mentioning your content and sharing valuable insights.
• Ask people from your circle about their experience, insights, and their expert opinion. This is a great way to increase engagement.
• Invite your friends and business contacts to subscribe to your Google Plus page. This action will allow you to engage a wider audience you can even expect.

Spend up to an hour a week on these points and you will quickly notice the effect.

How to use circles in Google Plus?

Circle is a group of people with whom you can share a post or a collection.

What should know about circles in Google Plus?

• You can add any person to the circle, even if you’re not subscribed to each other.
• New people in the circle can see all posts, including publications which were posted before the subscription date.
• No spam is here because a circle can be easily muted.
• You can both add a new person to your circle and exclude.

Why do you need to add people to circles in Google Plus?

Collecting an audience in a circle, you start working with the core audience. Circles allow you to quickly spread the information and deliver it to specific groups of your target audience. For instance, when holding a webinar for advanced marketers.

How to use communities on Google Plus for business?

One of the most effective ways to attract attention to your business in Google+ is to create a community around it.

What are benefits of the creation of a community?

Firstly, the first thing that a community member sees is a founder of the community. A user can easily get to your profile by clicking on your account preview.

Secondly, you can follow and monitor discussions and be right there joining the conversation when you feel members of the circle are ready to make a purchase.

Google Hangouts and other Google Plus events

What are Google Hangouts?

This is a video broadcasting between you and other Google+ users. Like any other live video service, Google Hangouts allow holding online interviews, webinars, classes and support sessions, contests and performing product demonstration and even broadcasting events. This will allow you to increase your credibility in the market and make users trust you.

You can also use Google Hangouts as an independent Google tool or as a part of a wide range of social media network features. You can arrange such an online meeting for people in your circles on Google Plus.

How to create a Google hangout meeting that will draw attention?

1. Create a circle with your target audience in it. Include people with similar interests and behavior to be sure that your event will attract the attention you need.
2. Use attractive banner so that your audience took an interest in your event.
   
   
3. Make your event private so that only the invited members could take part in it.
4. Encourage users to share invites to your event.

Collections, the main image, and a logo

Google Plus allows creating a high-quality visualization of the brand. Surprisingly, but Google Plus features as many functionalities for visualization as Instagram. Probably, that’s the reason why a brand is paying so much attention to it. For example, H&M:

Google Plus offers users to create Collections – groups of thematical publications:

They allow users to easily structure content and work with a target audience that has different interests. In this case, Google+ users may not subscribe to your profile or page, but they will be following your collections updates. This is a flexible content marketing tool, that you should not undervalue.

Conclusion:

It is frequently affirmed that Google Plus cannot be effective as a social media network for business (well, there is even an evidence of that fact). However, we hope that we’ve brought enough arguments to convince you that this social media network deserves to be tested.

Sources:

MOZ

Social Media Examiner

Huffingtonpost

Kissmetrics

Read more: Business / Content Strategy / GooglePlus / Tips