For businesses, Google Plus is an untapped resource and we’ve been able to prove its value again and again.
Navigating social media for business purposes can seem like an overwhelming task at times. Consider what you’re trying to accomplish when logging into your social accounts.
You’re trying to, above all, actually reach people.
You’re also trying to satisfy some mystifying algorithm that will place that content you worked so hard on in front of as many eyes as possible. As a bonus, it’ll reach people who haven’t heard of you before and expand your customer base.
At the same time you’re reaching people, you also need to be making some kind of sales pitch that viewers won’t just scroll past. It feels like a bit of a tightrope, right?
At Steady Demand, we believe social media has a high value. We’ve found that Google Plus, in particular, is a source of untapped potential. In fact, we’ve spent a great deal of time figuring out how to use Google Plus for maximum engagement.
A list of Social Media Platforms we manage for business also includes Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and more. But in this post, we’re going to tell you exactly why we put heavy emphasis on Google Plus, and why you may want to consider it as well.
Your Audience is Wider Than a Social Platform
One of the main reasons we specialize in Google Plus is that it translates to your wider search audience that’s already hot for your services. These customers are not hiding out on Social Media, and having to be warmed up or educated on your services and hopefully you’ll be bookmarked for later.
The concept for social media management is basically the same, with a little addition of our secret sauce to really grab onto your audience needs. The concept across all platforms of social media management are:
- Create high-quality content
- Engage your target audience
- Grow followers to increase awareness and website traffic
Now this three pronged approach may be weighted according to your business needs, but the overall effect is the same: Better Social SEO.
We work on the principle that the Google Plus platform is the foundation for teaching the Google search engine who your customers are, and where to send their business.
Businesses in particular benefit from providing Google with the data it needs. Consider the power of a well developed Google My Business page. My Business integrates seamlessly with Google Plus to paint a detailed picture of your business for anyone searching for you on the Google search platform.
Reviews, hours, the business address and contact information are all bits of information potential customers want to see immediately.
Take into account integration with Google Maps and you have a powerful presence in local and contextual search results. Even the Better Business Bureau recommends taking advantage of Google business services.
Use Google Plus as a platform if you really find it hard to define who your customers are.
On Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, your professional user base may be hiding out and only looking for their interest pages. They perhaps don’t even want to openly talk about their work or business because they have come to a place to hide out. Not only do people use social media differently from one another, but so do businesses.
“It might be tempting to follow the social media trends that are considered ‘hot’ in popular culture… it may or may not make sense for your company to update its Twitter account every hour; what works for another company may not have the same effects for yours.”
Google Plus however, is the offshoot platform that helps the Google search engine determine what all these indexed websites mean, and it needs real people to do that.
Google’s advantage in comparison with other social services is its use of contextual information to put more relevant results in front of users based upon their actions in the aggregate.
“Real people” is the mass meta-data obtained through the history of their web-browsing, webmail service use, and online behaviour pattern. Whether people choose to reveal their professional level of acumen, Google is constantly using their online behaviour pattern in order to serve up better information to fit their needs.
The Google Plus platform is effectively the human check and balance of the big-data machine. Your presence on Google Plus is rewarded for teaching Google what it cannot semantically know by serving up your website up to more people.
Add to that thought that you can now more refine your target customer base to target the business-to-business type of client that you could never target accurately on other social media platforms, and you have a win-win fit for business on all sides.
Isn’t it a waste for you to spend on targeted advertising, when the decision makers are not necessarily the owners of the company, but the vocationally trained level who never promote their position of leverage?
What Businesses Are Right for Google Plus?
Let’s look at some examples of businesses who have done well in their efforts on the Google platform.
Would you guess, Bail Bonds?
Bail Bonds have become the lexicon of an American way of life. However, less people being charged with serious drug offences meant that bail bonds services were being forced to promote themselves to compete.
However, obviously the target audience is something that does not want to be overtly reminded that they needed such services. Ending up in jail, even for a day, erodes employability, self-confidence, and really damages lives. How do you then engage, let alone target an audience that prefers to be ashamedly hidden?
In one month we got one bail bonds brand back on the map, phones ringing for help, and most surprisingly of all a growing connected audience on Google Plus.
We don’t just put content out there to broadcast your services. We teach Google that people have needs, that in some way or another by emotively relating to our curated content, Google is better able to determine what type of search “between the lines” should display said bail bonds service.
How we do it–that’s our secret sauce. We stick to tried and tested practices on the Google Plus platform that have over time with many clients delivered us maximum results for our clients.
How about hotels?
Capri Laguna, a hotel in Laguna Beach, CA, was looking to gain ground in the face of renovations and stiff competition.
We helped them create a Google Plus presence from the ground up with a daily content production schedule. Within a year, Capri Laguna had over 7,000 followers and plenty of social activity.
Their photo collection, Laguna Beach Photography, became a Featured Collection that gained over 100,000 followers. Individual photos receive hundreds of +1s each.
Bookings are up year over year, with calls increasing monthly. Tangible benefits were produced thanks to better Google integration.
Google Plus Is Unlike All Other Platforms
Google Plus isn’t like other social networks because its design causes direct results on non-digital key performance indicators (KPIs). Success is easily measured by more than just an increase in page impressions.
While gaining almost 100,000 followers on a photo collection is a win, seeing a marked increase in phone calls originating from Google Maps is the kind of result every business seeks. Requests for driving directions are performing along the same trajectory.
If you’d like to know more about how we’ve helped businesses expand their reach through Google Plus, we invite you to take a look at the case studies we’ve put together demonstrating the results we’ve achieved in a variety of markets.
Are you interested in learning more about how Google Plus can yield positive results for your outreach efforts? Drop us a line and set up a consultation.
