Most businesses understand the benefits of social media in relation to their overall marketing campaign. With the likes of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and even Snapchat, to name a few, businesses and their marketing teams are left with the decision as to where their efforts are best utilized to reach their intended client base. Google+, Google’s social media component, would appear to be an obvious choice, since Google is such a benefit with their other advertising platforms. However, depending on your expectations for Google+, you may be surprised by the outcome of its reach.
The Inner Workings
Google+, on the surface, appears as most other social media sites. You set up a profile, complete with a photo and a cover page, and start to add friends and followers. You then follow others and begin communications on some levels. An added feature to Google+ that most businesses actually find beneficial is Google Hangouts. Hangouts is a feature in which you can invite friends and followers to participate in a closed, interactive discussion. It works as though you are Skyping during a conference call of ten individuals, in which you can share video feed and data as one would do in a conference room. This is one of the few features of Google+ that has been well accepted in the business community.
As with Facebook, you have the option to keep everything within Google+ private and available to only those that follow you and your business or make it public for the world to see. Most businesses would choose to make their business profile public and utilize the source for advertising, while making the employees’ individual pages private.
For Your Business
The problem with Google+ is it never really took off. Most people are not overly active on Google+, especially because most apps and websites give you an option to login with Facebook, whereas very few sites offer that ability to Google+ users. This immediately puts emphasis on Facebook as the preferred avenue for traffic.
Nonetheless, Google+ serves an amazing purpose for businesses that cannot be matched by any other social media program with as much ease as Google+ allows. Google+ is a direct link back to Google and its search engine. Therefore, it is one of the first resources scanned and accepted by Google search when analyzing SEO. Active use of Google+ may not help with interaction between your business and clients directly; however, indirectly, it will help provide better quality SEO for your business’s website. ย
In the end, while the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter will likely allow a better avenue for active communication between your business and your clients, Google+ has its place in your social media marketing platform. It is a primary source to find and engage new clients with your website by increasing your SEO. To learn more about the benefits of adding Google+ to your social media marketing campaign, contact the experts at SKOL Marketing at (612) 787-7565. Their marketing experts are ready and able to assist you and your business with the best uses of Google+.
