The G+ opportunity

Salma Jafri shares seven tips on how to capitalise.

What other brand could possibly amass 20 million users within three weeks of its launch, if not Google? And what better service to do so than Google’s latest foray into social networking, Google Plus – also called Google+, Plus or G+.

Two weeks after its launch, Pakistan became one of the top 10 countries using Google Plus, and although we have since been dethroned from this position, local interest in G+ is holding steady. All this while the network is still in beta invite only mode! Imagine the explosion when G+ finally goes public. I won’t bore you with the basics of G+; just head on over to Mashable to view super detailed posts about how to use its various features.

Instead, I will focus on what you can start doing today to eventually make G+ work to your business advantage. In marketing everyone knows that you go where your customers are and it looks like your future competitors and customers are already (or will soon be) on G+. So best to put all that knowledge gleaned from years of using Facebook to good use.

Here are the top seven steps you need to take to get a solid start on G+.

1. Put the +1 button on your website

Launched earlier this year, the +1 (Plus One) button seemed to pale in comparison to Facebook’s Like button. However +1 has one serious whopper advantage that Like doesn’t; the ability to affect search result listings. If someone +1’s your website’s content, this results in a better ranking for your site in Google search results. Also, the +1 button adds to the social influence of a website; if a user +1’s a website and has friends on G+, those friends will see the +1 recommendation and be more likely to click on that result compared to other results on the page that do not have their friends’ stamp of approval.

2. Put a ‘Find Us on Google Plus’ widget on your website

Much like the Facebook mini widget or the follow us on Twitter badge, placing a ‘follow us on G+’ widget on your website will let future users know that you are building a presence on Google Plus. The market perception is that the most progressive companies are building a G+ presence; if you want to be known as an early adopter make your presence felt on G+.

3. Work out a content posting strategy for G+

Experiment on G+ to gain an understanding of how users consume content and what type of content has the most reshares, comments and +1s. Determine the end result you are after. Do you want your content to generate comments for greater interaction and discussion? Do you want your content to be reshared virally and spread? Do you want your content to be +1’d for better search rankings and social reach? Different types of content will elicit different results; begin by understanding what users expect and need from G+.

G+ facilitates a multi-pronged conversation rather than a broadcast snippet like Twitter or a marketing push like Facebook. Use G+ to air opinions, especially when they do not fit into 140 characters (Twitter) or 420 characters (Facebook). Share industry news, links, images and videos within your G+ stream. See how the big boys Robert Scoble (Rackspace) or Pete Cashmore (Mashable) are doing it (adding a bit of opinion and ideas to a link post or a photo link and making it their own). Do not post animated GIFs if you harbour any hopes of being taken seriously by your community!

4. Measure G+ traffic and analytics

Once you have worked out your posting strategy and are contributing original and curated content, it’s time to measure the results. A month into its launch G+ has already become the top referrer for websites such as TechCrunch. In evaluating the impact G+ is having on your traffic, remember that G+ is sending traffic via one source as it has no APIs or third party referrers yet. Twitter and Facebook have many third party applications sending traffic to your site, so account for this difference. Nevertheless, G+ traffic is forming a large part of referring website traffic and one can only assume this will increase given that people are joining G+ at the rate of a few million a day.

5. Use Circles for market segmentation

For people debating using Google Plus versus Facebook and/or Twitter, Google Plus’s ingenious Circles are often the deciding factor. They are pretty to look at, functional to use, they help categorise contacts based on relationships (family, friends, etc.) and interests (movie fans, hiking enthusiasts, etc.). Circles can also be used for market segmentation and targeting purposes. Once the business pages roll out, it is anticipated that companies will be able to target users based on demographics (e.g. women 30-60 years), while users may also be able to choose which brand Circles they want to be slotted into. In this way brands can customise messages based on Circle demographics and user interests; a very useful form of permission marketing and one that will help to eliminate white noise for both user and marketer as messages are customised and opted-into.

6. Streamline integration with Google products

Google Plus is not only a social network. It’s the gateway to integration with all Google products and services (Calendar to Docs to Picasa and more). Google has users cloud computing just about every aspect of their online life. Bear in mind that if your future customers are going to be using Google’s suite of products so intensely (a very real assumption), they will be more likely to interact with your brand from within the Google network than through an outside source. Once logged into Google, users will have an immersive experience. No reason why your brand should not be part of that experience.

7. Boost up your author credentials and your credibility

Along with the +1 button and other search algorithm tweaks, Google has introduced the Author Profile. This essentially places a big photograph of the author in the search result listings next to the content they have written. This helps content marketers in three big ways. Firstly, having an author photo aligned with a search result listing adds credibility, especially if you develop content around a particular niche. Secondly, author profiles add authority to the content (Google has even named the criteria as Author Authority). Thirdly, Author Authority is a verifiable factor in search rankings; author pictures are connected to Google Plus accounts. You can see where Google is going with all this – mass integration.

These starter tips will help you get comfortable using Google Plus from a business perspective. However, as Google will be rolling out business pages on Plus soon (expected end-2011), these strategies are only basic building blocks for now. Things will become more interesting when the business pages are rolled out and we will start to see some head-butting competition with Facebook pages. In the meantime, enjoy the myriad of enthusiastic conversations and connections on Google Plus and keep an eye out for future engagement opportunities for your brand!

Salma Jafri is founder and CEO, WordPL, a content marketing firm. salma@wordpl.net gplus.to/salmajafri