Why Google+ is Important

I have mentioned half a dozen times that I work in advertising and it is amazing how often things I do in my full-time job extend to the social media that I do with my blog. One that is becoming more and more prevalent is Google+. It is the fifth most popular social network, according to Alexa’s Global Traffic Rank, but what do you really use it for? Most people do not know.

I have seen this graphic across the net and when I started blogging two years ago I agreed and avoided Google+ too. It is no secret that no one loves Google more than Google and if you want Google to love you too then the content you produce should be shared on Google+. If that is not reason enough, I don’t know what is. While I do not have statistics on who is on Google+ I have two recommendations of who should be, businesses and bloggers.

So what is Google+? It is a social destination and a layer over Google’s products and services – a social networking platform for discovering and sharing digital content with friends, family and coworkers  .It incorporates many of the same capabilities of  Twitter, Facebook, messaging and photo-sharing apps in a NewsFeed type format.

For small and medium size businesses it is imperative to be on Google+ as it best place to put your company’s details – business address, hours of operation, website, location, and correct contact information. Why? Because when people search for you want the information that appears in the box on the right hand side of the search results to be the most actuate information possible, and heck, it’s free.

For bloggers it is a great way to share your content with those who do not follow your blog with GFC, BlogLovin, RSS, Feedburner, or via email. As a best practice, I do not share every post on Google+ because some of them, well, are just not suited. The posts that I have found work best are recipes, outfit posts, DIYs, and ones about fashion trends. My general rule of thumb – would I put it on Pinterest? If the answer is yes, then I will share it on Google+ as well. Is this a hard and fast rule? No, but 4,038,298 Google+ profile views is not too shabby if I do not say so myself. Profile views are found just next to the nubmer of followers on Google+ and they indicate the number times your content has been seen by other people, including your photos, posts, and profile page. To further my point, it was 3,964,192 views when I started the first draft of this post two weeks ago.

You may have noticed on Facebook pages you are now able to view how many people have seen each post and while this information is not available on Google+ you can see how many people have seen your profile. Who are the four million people who have visited my Google+ page? I have no idea but if you can spend a few minutes a day sharing your posts to bring in that many people – why wouldn’t you? In addition, it is a great way to build relationships. Like Facebook and Twitter you can tag companies and individuals but you can also send the post as a direct message to different pages without having to tag them.

And as one last point, Google+ is a huge component of SEO, search engine optimization, as it increases your visibility and reach by offering great content on Google Plus that people will what to view and share.  And if you do not believe me take a look at this great article from What Mark Zuckerberg learned from Google+.

It is not just me, a bunch of my blog friends are totally onboard: Alyssa of Runway Chef, Lauren of Fizz and Frosting, Niki of Glossy Blonde, Stephanie of The Vintage Modern Wife, Chelsea of Olive & Ivy, and Rachel of Life Unsweetened.  To view their Google+ profiles click on there names here:  Alyssa, Lauren, Niki, Stephanie, Chelsea and Rachel.

‘

It is not just bloggers brands like Sephora, Vogue,  Nike,  Burberry,  Glamour,  Ferrari, and H&M all have over 2 million followers on Google+!  I hope this posts serves as an overview of the channel and lays out at least a few reasons why it is a good use of time – please let me know in the comments if you have any questions and make to follow me on Google+!

Have I convinced you?
Do you believe me that Google+ is important?