How Changes to Google+ Can Help Marketers

Google+? As marketers we are constantly looking for effective ways to interact and build a mutually beneficial relationship with your target audience. Having that been said, social media marketing is an essential part of any company’s marketing plan, our target audience can only grow through relationships that flourish.

For most marketers it’s already common knowledge that getting into the social scene can make where you focus your efforts a bit tricky. There has to be a goal of understanding that by using social media 90% is intentional to help grow and promote businesses. You have to generate exposure, increase traffic and report back with positive results. This means utilizing social media to develop a loyal audience and gain a higher market.

So taking all of these factors into consideration, there is no reason for a marketer to NOT use Google+. Why? It’s the fastest growing network of about 500M upgraded users, 235M active day to day users and 135M users who simply just stream. When news about the breakup of Google+ products came out in early 2015, some users thought it meant the end of Google+. But now, having checked out Google+’s new changes… it’s a comforting sign that Plus is here to stay. It shows Google is still putting money and resources into the website, a product worth spending on.

Some of the newest changes to this uprising network put its features Communities and Collections front and centre. The system is now simpler and more mobile-friendly from the web to Android and iOS users for a faster and more convenient experience. These changes and enhancements are some of the most essential for our marketing needs.

Google+ Communities and Google+ Collections

For those of you who don’t have an idea about these features…

Communities is Google+’s way for you to communicate with other people around the world on what you’re passionate about. It gives you the ability to do things like have a public or private membership to support all kinds of groups—from topics and interests, discussion categories to find the conversations you care about, the option to start hangouts and plan events, and the ability to share from any +1 button across the web.

With Collections adding to what Communities has to offer, it offers a new way to group posts by topic. It provides an easy way for you to organize all the things you’re into and where people can find and follow them.

Founder of Plus Your Business Martin Shervington gave an impressive observation saying that the since having been released and in the process of constant change Google+ gives an impressive impression for a platform, having its focus on Collections and Communities. This means good news for everyone who plans on getting nerdy and techy on a dynamic platform such as this.

For marketers who yet to believe that these features are an advantage Denis Labelle a well acknowledged Google+ Ambassador talks about how the new Google+ is all about the interest of its users, the web and most importantly people’s passions on what they want to get out to the world. Marketing should have a percentage aimed towards passionate people and with that being said find an incredible way to connect with them using the updated platform.

MISSING FEATURES?

A lot of people have been complaining about “missing features” on the new interface.

Think again! These features are not necessarily lost, they just moved to separate or their own subdomains making categorizing and organizing more user-friendly. Here are the specifics:

Events

If you are interested in creating an event while still viewing the new Google+, you’ll have to locate  the link at the lower left of your Google+ dashboard so that you can get back to the Classic G+, which is currently available in the Google+ Android app and the classic view of G+.

Hangouts

Hangouts now has its very own subdomain, hangouts.google.com. If you’ll remember correctly this is the perfect place for you to connect with Google contacts, make use of video calls, make phone calls or send out text chats. Just like a bunch of other features it now has its own app on Android and iOS gadgets, entirely separate from the commonly used main Google+ app.

Google My Business

Your Google Plus brand and local business pages are now split between Google+ and Google My Business. You can still toggle between your profile and pages using the menu at the top right of your dashboard. It also has its own domain business.google.com and its own app for Android and iOS devices.

Photos

It also is under its own subdomain, photos.google.com. That is where you’ll find all of the photos you’ve uploaded to your profile and has its own app for Android and iOS devices.

If it wasn’t obvious before, Plus is more mobile than ever before, it proved that the search engine is taking mobile device content seriously.

That being said Google has placed particular attention on mobile-friendly designs in its new social platform and included apps for devices operating on Android and iOS.

Active Google+ Users Posting 50+ Times per Month

As marketers, it’s our job to start the spread of word, but it’s also our job to make sure that our followers and subscribers uphold the continuous method of passing on whatever it is we started out marketing in the first place.

It has helped lots of ventures stay alive and even moved some of them into the mainstream spotlight. For one thing, it has proved to help outsource and gain momentum in your customer base.

In India, 80% of Internet users have an account, and nearly 40% are active on it regularly. With similar numbers in Thailand, Mexico, South Africa, Malaysia and other countries, Plus gives you a stronger international audience.

Search capabilities and Google+

Not using Plus, you will be missing out on an extraordinary opportunity to optimize your content for search engines. It will be indexed more quickly, and you can create greater amounts of content on the topics that interest you and your target audience.

Listening

When content is on Plus, you get to monitor anyone says about you and your business. You can even set up alerts to do so. It is critical for any marketer to be aware of the feedback, both to improve due to the negative kind or to push forward due to the positive kind. You will also have to evaluate each one decide which ones you should respond to.

Google and Google+

Google is almost always connected to Plus. They go hand in hand and as a marketer, you can really benefit from that. Google is used by every single person with access to the interest which would serve as an advantage. You’d be surprised at how much you can accomplish with the two tools.

Using Google+ to create content

Google+ allows you to create content fast and easy. It’s many features that will help you to create your content in a way that is not only appealing but will reach every person you intend to reach. The capabilities with the help of using this tool will provide your content with positive results.

Google offers S+YW

The best search feature that enhances your results with posts, photos and more from your friends. Though the results won’t be the same since you both have different search histories, this will still provide you with a better view over searching for details and information.

This will help you strengthen whatever it is you are marketing. Who you know has become an incredibly important factor for what you end up marketing.

No update filtering, No Ads

Other social networks have increasingly applied filters that updates what people that have liked your brand’s “page” see. This is so they can force you to spend on advertising to get attention.

Google doesn’t need to make money from Plus and it certainly doesn’t need search advertising. It doesn’t need to force you to pay to be visible on Plus. This also means that there are no annoying advertisements to distract you or your market from the main agenda.

Wrapping it up

Google+ is great for marketers for several reasons – the most important reason is that Google+ has great SEO benefits.

It actually plays an integral part of any business’ online marketing strategy. When you realize all the SEO advantages of using Google+, you will immediately see it needs to be incorporated into your marketing strategy.

All of these changes help in making the interface more integrated, you can now stream easier, post updates easier and makes managing your Circles (your followers or the people you’re following) more convenient, making it into a platform that wins you business.

It has an unrecognized advantage; it forces users to sign up for an account if they wanted to easily use its different services. Unconsciously giving you and your target market more reasons to be updated and connected with its various features.

As Google continues to refine its platform, you can benefit from its tweaks by understanding what is considered important. You can now leverage Plus efficiently and your business will succeed and grow to even greater heights because of it. It will help you build credibility, exhibit yourself as an expert on marketed material, and help strengthen your professional reputation as a marketer.