Google+ (or "Google Plus") may not get the press of social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter but with 170 million users (and counting) and its search engine affiliation it cannot be ignored.
Google has merged Google Places business listings with Google+ Local enabling social media chatter and reviews to both influence and become part of local search engine results. That makes content marketing on Google+ an important part of your online formula.
To help you make the most of the opportunity here are some content marketing tips for Google Plus:
First, if you do not have a Google+ page for your business you need to set one up or move your Google Places content into Google+ Local. If you have multiple locations make sure to have a separate page for each location.
Utilize text formatting to make your updates stand out. In Google+ you can italicize words by placing an underscore before and after the text - for instance, _this_ becomes this. For bold text, use asterisks (*) before and after the text. Hyphens (-) produce strikethrough text.
Use hashtags (#). Like Twitter, Google+ utilizes hashtags before key words to make it easy to search for related topics. By utilizing trending hashtags your posts will get seen by more people.
Use plus (+) mentions. The "+" symbol on Google+ functions similarly to the "@" symbol on Twitter or Facebook, allowing you to "tag" different people or companies in your posts.
Create Google Circles to share content targeted at specific groups of people. The whole idea of "Circles" on Google+ is that you can organize people into categories and share things specific to the people in those categories. For instance, you might have one Circle populated by your regular customers and offer a special discount that applies only to them for that particular day. Other Circles could include groups such as your vendors or influential people within your industry allowing you to have separate conversations that are visible only to the people you choose.
Use photos. On Google+ a picture is actually worth more than a thousand words; few people would read a thousand-word post, but everyone will notice a photograph.
Recycle previous content. One benefit of this relatively new platform is that it allows you to get more mileage out of evergreen content you have already created. If you have an old blog post or video that you are particularly proud of, or that drives a lot of search traffic, you can share it with a new audience on Google+. In the process, you can rapidly build up your Google+ content and posting frequency without really doing any new work.
Start real-time conversations. You can get instant feedback from different Circles on Google+ which allows you to try out ideas or gauge interest. It is like having a free focus group on standby at all times.
Utilize these tips with Google+ and you can start adding customers to your business today.
