What Google+ Means for your Online Marketing Strategy

What Google+ Means for your Online Marketing Strategy

How the New Social Network Is Already Affecting Your Business

By now you’ve likely heard the hub-bub about Google+ (Google Plus), a new social network launched by Google. Google+ is essentially Google’s answer to Facebook. It pre-launched in July on an invite-only basis. Invites have been notoriously easy to get which may explain why Google managed to get more than 1.7 million users in the first week.

Business pages (like Facebook Fan Pages) aren’t available yet, but they are in the works. Even though business pages aren’t available yet, Google+ is already making an impact in your online marketing and in the very near future, it has the capability to exponentially impact your ability to connect with potential customers.

How Google+ is already affecting your business

Search Engine Rankings
Have you noticed that little +1 button? It’s on every search result in google. It’s also on every google plus post (sorta like the ‘like’ button on FB). This button carries weight in the Google Search algorithm. When users click that +1 on your link, image, or video on Google+, it adds to your search engine rankings. If someone else on Google+ shares your link, image or video, and their followers click the +1, it also adds to your rankings. Google has basically added recommendation to their search algorithm as a factor to determine page ranking.
Social media is good for search engine ranking, but with the +1 button Google has taken out a layer and made SEO and Social media even more tightly bonded.

Sparks

Google+ contains a feature called Sparks. This functionality allows Google+ to stay informed about topics they deem relevant. In short Google+ aggregates content for the user based on the sparks or web topics that have been set. This brings great possibility to content creators. If your business is using self-generated content such as blog posts or video, sparks could further popularize your content in an environment full of people who are there to share.

How Google+ is going to affect your business in the future

Highly Targeted Advertising
As Google+ grows, people will be sharing and storing information about themselves in their Google+ accounts. As they search, the ads Google presents to them can be more targeted to the search user. This means your business will end up having the means to target not just a specific gender, region, or age; but also by other details that can’t be learned by a simple sign up form. For now, this scenario exists: a user like myself searches for “bakery”. If I happen to be logged into Google at the time, the search results will come back with bakeries in Austin, because Google knows I live in Austin. The following will exist in the near future as more and more people adopt Google+: I search for bakeries in Google, and since I’ve recently posted in Google+ about cupcakes in one post and my obsession with Angry Birds in another post, Google ads may show me a targeted ad for an Austin bakery who is advertising Angry Birds cupcakes (which I would totally buy, by the way). This will bring businesses closer to connecting with niche customers who are more likely to buy.

Get Face to Face with Hangouts

Hangouts are basically an area in Google+ where connected users can video conference. This is a great tool for converting followers to customers. Imagine your company sells a widget. This widget has many uses and a potential customer posts on your Google+ page asking a question about one of those uses. You can invite them to a Hangout where you can show them a product demonstration. They interact with you “face to face” and a connection is made. This allows you to convert a customer online rather than scheduling a sales meeting.

Our suggestion

The bottom line on Google+ is that you shouldn’t ignore it. Will it replace Facebook and Twitter? It’s unlikely, but it’s being adopted quickly so it makes sense for business to start checking it out and getting know its features. This is especially true if your target audience is tech-savvy early adopters. Regardless of whether you join Google+, it makes sense to install that +1 button on your website since it is now something that can directly influence your search engine rankings.