Just when you thought you had a handle on promoting your business with social media, Google throws a wrench in your marketing plans by creating its own social media platform – Google+. Despite all the buzz about Google+ overtaking Facebook as the king of social media websites, Google+ really hasn’t caught on yet, especially in my neck of the woods, southern Maine. I recently logged in and it was a bit of a lonely experience. My stream consisted of mostly celebrities like Maria Bartiromo, and Gary Vaynerchuk and, so far, there hasn’t been a lot of interest to join Google+ from my friends, family or business acquaintances. That isn’t to say that Google+ is a failure. It takes time to build a social network and I believe that since Google+ has some great features, it will be relevant in the future.
Why You Should Create a Google+ Page?
The Early Bird Gets The Worm – As Gary Vaynerchuk (the leading social media expert) would tell you, it’s always a good idea to jump on the bandwagon early, making this the perfect opportunity to promote your business using a social media platform that will likely be extremely popular down the road. Joining early will eventually give you an advantage over your competition, as you will already be familiar with the ins and outs of it by the time Google+ becomes popular.
Search Engine Optimization
If for no other reason, join Google+ for your website. Google is still by far the most popular search engine and it understandably gives a lot of importance to links from its own products. Creating a Google+ page gives you one more high-powered link pointing to your site!
The +1 Button
In my opinion, the most exciting feature in Google+ is the +1 button. You may have already noticed this browsing the web. It allows you to share websites you like publicly with others. Whenever you click the +1 icon on a website, your friends on Google+ will see it that you have recommended it. This is another tool that positively affects your website’s search engine ranking.
Starting Your Google+ Business Page
Go to and click on the big blue button “Create Your Google+ Page”. If you are not already a Google+ member, you will be redirected to the main page where you can join. You will need a Google account to sign-up, and if you already use any of Google’s many products such as Gmail, YouTube or Adwords, then you’re covered.
Choose the category that best describes your business and then fill out some basic information about your company.
Next, fill out your tagline, which is essentially one to four keywords that you would use to reference your type of organization and choose an image to use for your Google+ profile.
Subsequently you have the opportunity to share your new page with your Google+ circles, assuming you have some.
Click “Finish” and that’s it, you’re done!
Promoting Your Google+ Page
Make sure to add the +1 button and a link to your Google+ page on your website.
Add your Google+ link on all your other social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook.…