Google Plus is the new kid on the block as it relates to social media.
And yet it has already positioned itself well among the major players. In fact as of 2012 it is the #2 social network relative to number of users. Active or not, I’m not sure.
And believe it or not this is not Google’s first attempt at a social network. In order of appearance there was Orkut, Google Wave, and then Google Buzz.
For various reasons none of these seemed to take hold but never the less Google persisted and Google+ was born.
There are many aspects of Google+ that make it ideal for a sales person to use to increase their online brand awareness as well as incoming leads.
Your Profile
It’s important to fill out your profile completely. Same as with LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Make sure to have a complete profile, picture and all. This is paramount if you want to be respected in the social space.
Your cover photo is a prime piece of real estate. Make sure to use it creatively and effectively.
In the About section be sure to post links to your websites whether personal or business. These are a great resource for back links if you have a blog of your own.
Be sure to make them as descriptive as possible with your keyword terms.
Google Plus Posts
This is where you share your industry knowledge and relevant news stories. Like the other social networks, the most important thing to do is share valuable information and news about your expertise and industry.
Be sure to include a descriptive intro so that readers will have an idea of what your post is about.
You can even format your status updates within Google Plus using these tools:
- Underscore symbol ( _ ) creates italics: _sales_ will become sales.
- Asterisk symbol (*) creates bolded words: *pro* becomes pro.
- Hyphen symbol (-) for strikethrough: -sales pro- becomes
sales pro. - Underscore and asterisk (_ and *) for both italicized and bold: _*sales pro*_ becomes sales pro.
Use these fun formatting tricks to really make your posts stand out from the crowd.
Google Plus Circles
Circles are how you stay informed of other Google Plus users. You can add industry experts to your circles and stay up to date with their postings and shares.
Like the other social networks it’s important that you share, re-post, and comment in order to be seen as an active member of the community.
Don’t simply push your own agenda, be a helpful contributor.
Google Hangouts
Google Hangouts are just plain cool. It’s Skype for social media.
The first time I did a Hangout with a friend I was impressed with the quality of video and sound. It was not choppy at all like I have seen with Skype.
In addition I love that multiple people can be on the same video chat at one time.
I highly recommend Google Hangouts as an alternative to Skype for your video chat needs.
+1’s
+1’s are Google’s version of the like button.
Similar to Twitter posting cadence, there has been a lot of articles about the +1 influence on SEO however this is something that can be hard to prove.
And not unusually Google has not offered up much in the exact weight it carries.
But I 100% think that there is a great amount of weight given to pages or posts with a large amount of +1’s. After all, why wouldn’t Google give influence to it’s own social signal.
So when you post on Google Plus be sure to encourage that your readers +1 your posts.
For example….be sure to +1 this post if you thought it was helpful. Thanks!
~ Johnny Bravo
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Very helpful …thank you.