How to get more value from Google+

For a while, Google+ has been one of the social platforms that often got overlooked by marketers, even though it plays a major role in search engine optimization (SEO). For that reason alone if nothing else, Google+ is in fact a very powerful tool to have in your social media strategy.

Considering that you already created your Google+ page and made sure you added a good description, your contact information, photos and links to your company’s most important resources( website, blog and main social profiles), here’s what you can do to get more value from Google +

1. Use Google+ Circles

This is e very important feature of Google+, allowing you to organize contacts by interest, age, gender or other segment into custom created circles. This is a highly effective way to target your messages to your desired audience. As in any social platform, the key here is to engage your contacts in meaningful and interesting conversations. This will also make other relevant users add you to their circles where you can bring your knowledge to add value to the discussions and establish yourself as a thought leader.

Enlarging your network on Google+ is a really important step and will greatly benefit your company, ranking higher your content in your contacts’ search results.

2. Use Google+ hangouts

This feature gives you the chance to communicate with your customers face to face. It allows you to have a live video chat with up to 10 people, giving you the opportunity to really engage you clients and to build stronger relationships with them. You can use it to hold workshops, meetings and chats that will tremendously increase your visibility. One other great thing about it is that afterwards you can see exactly who was present, allowing you to be able to provide targeted follow-ups and to get to learn more about your clients and prospects.

3. Make the most out of the +1 feature

The +1 is Google’s equivalent of “liking”. The people in your circles will see the content you +1 in their feed. What makes this feature way better than a “like” on Facebook is that it brings you more value, by improving your website’s ranking.

Try to write interesting, useful content that can earn as many +1s as possible and your article will prominently appear in Google search results, driving more traffic to your story.

To maximize the great effects of this feature, try to find and +1 content related to your audience’s interests, this way your +1 will appear in related search results. It’s a great way of increasing your visibility and brand yourself as an expert in the topics relevant for your audience.

4. Setting up Google Authorship

You should fully take advantage of the SEO benefits of Google+ by using the Google Authorship. This way, your picture will show up next to your post in Google search results, increasing your trustworthiness and overall awareness, and helping your content stand out from the multitude of search results. You will establish yourself as a quality source of content.

It’s important to include keywords into your posts, because Google pulls personalized results from Google+ activity and this will increase your chances to show up more in search results. Using effectively this social platform will definitely benefit your SEO campaign.

5. Grow and promote your Google+ page

Constantly create more content, publish interesting articles and images and try to promote your Google+ page as often as possible through your website and other social networks. For example, add a Google +1 button to your website. It will drive more traffic to your Google+ Page.

In order to grow your profile, try to follow relevant users and interact with thought leaders Make sure your content is shared by your followers and constantly add relevant pages to your circles. Invite your colleagues, clients and partners to add your brand page.

These were just few things to take into consideration when developing your Google + strategy. Do you have any marketing Google+ tips you’d like to share? Please share your input in your comments.