What Is The Value of Google+ Brand Pages?

Now with over 400 million people using Google+, are you starting to think maybe your business should be there, too? If you are thinking along these lines, you are heading in the right direction. It’s critical for a business’s social presence to be where their community is. But, Google+ still doesn’t have widespread adoption like Facebook and Twitter. Why be on Google+ then? The SEO benefits alone might be more than worth it.

Over 1 million+ Brand Pages were created in the site’s first 6 months. In a study conducted by enterprise SEO company BrightEdge, their results revealed that Google+ is catching up to Facebook and Twitter in terms of numbers of top companies on the network. Three quarters of the top brands in the U.S. are now on Google+. So, what’s the bad news? Of the top 100 Brand Pages, only 15 million Google+ users have actually circled one of these brands in comparison to Facebook’s 481 million Page “likes”.

Despite the interaction statistics, I’m sure you are starting to notice more Google+ results in your SERPs. Google+ activity is incorporated even more heavily with Search plus Your World results thrown into the mix.

If visibility within the Google search results is your goal, your business should invest resources into building out a Google+ strategy. Leverage the tools Google+ offers such as Local pages and Communities to gain maximum exposure for your Brand Page.

Like this post? Connect with Erika Barbosa on Google+.

Image credit: Marco Bellucci

Do Google+ Communities Influence Your Organic Rankings?

As Google+ continues to roll out features, Google+ Communities is the latest to be premiered. Google+ Communities are places for people to gather together, have rich conversations, and explore the interests they share. Perhaps you can even think of them as modern-day forums. Resembling LinkedIn Groups and Facebook Groups, Google+ Communities appear to be a valuable element to your overall Google+ presence.

How can Google+ communities help your organic visibility? The content within Communities is public by default (although there is an option for private). This affords you with the opportunity to give Google fresh, relevant, and valuable content for indexing. If you can create and fuel a Community that its members are active in, you can exhibit your authority on the topic and can potentially impact your Google rankings.

Google+ isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Google has plenty of capital and resources to dedicate to the platform and has clearly demonstrated just how invested they are. Now is the time to evaluate your overall Google+ strategy while it isn't saturated with your competitors.

What opportunities do you envision for your business with Google+ Communities? Please leave a comment below.

Like this post? Connect with Erika Barbosa on Google+.

Image credit: egorick

New for 2013: Google Plus Hangouts On Air

There has been a lot of speculation this year about whether or not Google Plus (G+) will take off as an important social media channel or if it will be Google’s fourth social network failure. Despite a general lack of interest from the typical Internet user, online marketers are pretty enthusiastic about the possibilities of G+ and more and more companies and agencies are starting to take notice.  

One tool in particular that could make a huge difference for businesses is the Hangouts On Airfeature that is a part of the Google Plus platform. Similar to regular G+ Hangouts, Hangouts On Air have a host and up to 9 participants in a video chat room. The only difference is that Hangouts On Air allows you to broadcast the Hangout live to the public from your G+ account to your YouTube channel and record it. Check out this SlideShare presentation by Sue Reynolds for more on Google Plus Hangouts. One thing to keep in mind is which G+ account you are hosting from – your personal profile or a brand page?

Whatever your strategy, the possibilities for this tool are endless if you think about it. It’s essentially your own television station with no overhead costs! What ways can you think of to use Hangouts On Air in your business strategy for 2013?

Google+ Gets Local

Yesterday Google rolled out Google+ Local for businesses. Upon logging into your Google+ account, you will see the new “Local” icon on your right-side navigation bar. A local business listing provides access to features such as photos, reviews, and a new scoring guide (Zagat's 30-point scoring system). You’ll notice there is unquestionably a stronger emphasis on reviews and photos at the top of the listings.

However, Google instructs businesses to continue using Google Places for Business to manage their listing information. There will be more news to come on how you can go about linking your Google+ business page to your Google+ Local listing.

At first glance, although Google attempted to make the layout clean with the white space – the listings still look "crowded". Perhaps because it rolled out yesterday and I haven’t been able to spend a great deal of time in Local, I’m just not loving my first impression from a layout/usability perspective.

How do you see your business using Google+ Local?

Like this post? Connect with Erika Barbosa on Google+.

Simple Tool to Create Your Google+ Profile Banner

Are you looking for an easy to use tool for creating your photo banner on Google+?

The website, GPlusBanner.com, offers a tool to crop a photo into individual banner-optimized images. Mashable recommends, for the best results start with an image that’s already 685 x 125 pixels.

Here’s a neat way to incorporate the Brand Page main image with the photo banner:

Local Music Vibe:


Please remember, this is just a free tool to get started with. It may not work perfectly with all images.

How do you see the Brand Page photo banner differing from a Facebook photo ribbon? They are awfully similar to me, although I do feel the Google+ photo banner offers a much cleaner design.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents Ten Things You Need to Know About Google+

This Wednesday Webinar, presented by Jay Berkowitz, CEO of TenGoldenRules.com and Founder of the InternetMarketingClub.org, will explain the "Ten Things You Need to Know About Google+."

The webinar will cover how to create your own Google Plus for Business page, how G+ is affecting SEO, information about circles, groups, hangouts, etc., and the first mover advantage.

If the last thing you needed was ANOTHER social network, Jay will show you how deal with it in this webinar.

This free webinar will take place on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 from 12:30pm EST - 1:30pm EST. To register, and for more information, please visit: Ten Things You Need to Know About Google+.

Tips for Google+ Brand Pages

Now that Google+ Brand Pages are FINALLY available, are you looking for tips to optimize your Brand Page’s presence? It is critical to establish your Brand Page now before your competitors do. Begin growing and nurturing your community from the start. Despite the talk of whether or not Google+ is dead, brands are jumping on the opportunity to create their Google+ Page, are you?

Below are 4 helpful articles to get you started with your Google+ Brand Page:

How to Optimize Your Google+ Business Page [Free Ebook!]

Google+ Pages: 4 Tips To Create A Community Page

10 Tips and Tricks for Better Google+ Brand Pages

It’s also recommended that you implement the new Google+ Badge on your website. This is a requirement for inclusion in Google Direct Connect.

Google+ Badges Make it Simple for Users to Connect With Brands

I wouldn’t discount the importance and influence Google+ Brand Pages will have with search. Although this is yet to be fully explained, it doesn’t take much time to set these Pages up, so it’s worth the test.

What has your experience been like with Google+ Brand Pages so far?

Google+’s Business Profiles & The Influence of Social Video

So the question still remains – when will Google allow business profiles on Google+?

Jolie O’Dell (Venture Beat) reports Google will be unveiling specially tweaked profiles with analytics and more sophisticated sharing options, all coming during (or shortly after) Q3 2011.

In the meantime, have you thought about how your business will take advantage of the rich social video opportunities Google+ offers? Google+ opens up a new world for video usage. From Hangouts to sharing features, brands will soon be able to get more exposure.

Below are 5 ways Google+ will drive social video growth as explained in a post from Mashable.com:

1. More focused sharing via Circles
2. Co-viewing experiences with Hangouts
3. Mobile reach
4. Better data and reporting
5. SEO opportunities (between the +1 button, Google+, and Google Search)


Google+ Business Profiles & Reporting

A Google spokesperson said, “You can expect to see a level of analytics and measurement that you’d typically find in Google products as well as a nuanced approach to how things are shared. It encourages and enhances conversation; it doesn’t just put things in the stream.”

With the new social data insights and reporting that Google will offer, social video will be an important component as well as your use of YouTube campaigns. I would imagine Google will provide a really intuitive solution for integration between the two.

Although I’m not suggesting putting all of your marketing focus solely on Google+, I do encourage you to continue to explore this platform.

I still wonder why Google didn’t include business profiles in its beta launch…