It’s time for companies to take notice of what Google+ is doing for B2B. You might say, “oh no, not another social platform we have to learn,” but get over it. Social media is here to stay and Google isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it’s rapidly evolving into a powerful B2B marketing tool.
Here’s why.
SEARCH
Google is amazing at finding that one needle in the haystack full of web pages, news, images, videos and more. Google is transforming into a search engine that will now find people and relationships, as well as content. From a B2B perspective, that’s huge. Think org chart on the web allowing you to build strategic relationships with others in your business community, particularly new prospects.
Want to drive more traffic to your website or blog? Looking to build your newsletter audience or increase downloads of your online publications? Share your links on G+ and prospects can find your site and the content their looking for (and business relationships) by search. Google now associates content with their authors.
Google has 80% market share in web search and that gives G+ very favorable positioning for your content (Google + already has 90 Million users).
Take Action - Set up a Google+ page and use it as a conversation hub. Connections can be categorized by creating Circles organized by industry, company, product, service or any other nature of your business relationships. This is a highly effective way to target messages geared to specific groups. For example, if your business offers multiple products or services, you can send a message or announcement to those contacts who have expressed an interest in a certain area, without alienating those that are interested in other aspects of your business.
Search results are affected by the people you’re connected with, the relationships you have with them, and the content from each author. And don’t forget, +1 links could rank much higher in search engine results.
What’s more;
- Sites on G+ tend to be indexed very quickly
- Social connections may hold more importance than links
Take Action - Promote G+ sharing by adding a +1 button to key site pages and all blog posts and by adding a link to the company’s Google + page to all site templates. This encourages G+ users to come to you and increase your SEO results.
A G+ business page enables you to enhance and distribute your brand beyond the basic networking level. Identify people that are relevant to your business. Define your audience by demographic, location, topic, sales revenue, etc. Then, share their content. That’s the quickest way to build your community (by the way, that’s what your company should be doing on all their social networking sites). Next, contribute content they find value in. This could be educational information on your product or service offering, industry or customer statistics, behind the scenes videos or photos of your star employees. Sharing information that benefits the readers, is interesting, unique, transparent and sincere, builds your brand.
63% of G+ users are male while 37% are female.
I love the Google+ is the hangouts page. Why? It’s a fantastic video conferencing tool, you can conduct internal or external meetings, address customer service issues and host group chats, training workshops and much more. Plus, you can follow up with current or perspective clients after the event because you can see who was in attendance.
Check out the Mashable step by step tutorial on how to set up your G+ business page. It’s easier than you might think and it’s well worth the effort to do so.
