An effective use of social media can be a huge boon to marketing for any business owner, but it presents special opportunities entrepreneurs particularly. Google+ is the second largest social network and boasts a user base of over 343 million people.
If you aren’t sure how to go about using Google+ to promote your business, or if you just want to make sure that you’re using the service to its best advantage, here are some tips on Google+.
• Create a page for your business. First, set up a personal account on Google+’s homepage at plus.Google.com. Once you have a personal account, click on the drop-down menu that says “home” and go to “pages.” From there, click the link that says “create a page.”
• From here, you have to begin the process of gaining followers. To start out, begin following other businesses in your area, both related and unrelated to real estate. Your business page can only follow other business pages. When other business pages add you to their circles, add them back to strengthen the relationship.
• Respond to activity on your page. Once people begin +1ing, commenting, and sharing, thank them and respond to their comments. The more active your page is and the more you respond to your users, the more people will want to interact with your page.
• Promote your page: add the URL to your business card, flyers, blog, and other marketing materials. Connect your services.
• Post useful content often. If you have a blog, post the articles or photos you’re posting there onto your Google+ as well. This will also help you attract followers and page traffic.
• Add the +1 and Circles buttons to your website so that people can follow you from there.
• Add colleagues, related businesses, and friends into your circles. This allows you to share different things with different groups of people.
• Comment on other people’s pages and posts, particularly ones related to your business. That will make you more visible on the network and, again, a more active user.
• Google+ verifies your business with Google, which can help format searches for your business. There are also rumors that businesses associated with a Google+ page get ranked higher in Google’s search results.
• Like in any social media avenue, post as much and as varied content as you can. Blog posts of what’s going on in your business, content related to anything of interest in your community, photos of homes you’re representing, news about goings on in your business, links to applicable content elsewhere on the internet, and links to new content on your website or blog, can help better establish your business on the social network and help you reach out to possible clients or professional contacts.
• There’s a complaint that there aren’t that many users on Google+, but in truth, there are now more users on Google+ than on any social network other than Facebook, including Twitter. Use this myth to your advantage. Many of your competitors may not be investing in Google+, so make sure you do your homework and have an active, lively business page to show to Google+’s 343 million members.