5 Reasons to Create a Google+ Page

Welcome to another edition of the “5 Reasons” blog series. This will be a weekly blog series, with a fresh post every Monday. Last week’s topic was “Five Reasons to Test Your Marketing Email Timing”.

This Week’s Topic = Five Reasons to Create a Google+ Page

So it’s not as new or as hot as when it first launched, but Google+ still has a role to play in your business. If you avoided getting involved early, you weren’t alone. But it’s time to forget about all the reasons you had for not joining when it first came out, and get involved.

Here are 5 reasons you need to create a Google+ page for your business:

1. Help your SEO. Google won’t come right out and say it, but linking your Google+ page to your website is going to make it more likely that people will find you when they’re searching on Google. It allows people to +1 your business, which makes it more relevant in Google’s eyes.
   
   
2. Add to your Google ads. If you run paid ads on Google through Google AdWords, you have some enhanced options available to you once you’re page is set up. You can add the +1 button to your ads, helping you stand out from the crowd of other advertisers who are bidding on the same terms.
   
   
3. Boost your brand’s search results. When you have a page on Google+, you are likely to show up on the top of the right hand side, within the paid results, when someone searches your brand.  Your business will show up, along with a logo and contact information. To see what I mean, try searching for “University of Phoenix”.
   
   
4. Tell Google why you’re relevant. In a world where Google controls a large majority of searches and referrals, it’s more important than ever that Google knows how you are. That’s why we submit sitemaps to Google, seek inbound links, and keep fresh content on our sites. And it’s why everyone should create a brand page on Google+ and link it back to your website.
   
   
5. Reach people who are using it. Not everyone uses Facebook and Twitter. Google+ has regular users who are in there on a daily basis. And you want to show up if they are looking for something that you offer within the network.

As always, if you have your own tips, please include them in the comments below.

2013 Blueprints: Social Media Marketing

Social media is still evolving every day. But the line in the sand has been crossed when it comes to both public and brand adoption. Social media is now a mainstay in the marketing plan, and it’s not going anywhere soon. So getting involved is essential for success.

But just getting involved doesn’t give you the best chance to succeed. There are some shifts taking place in social media marketing that you will want to pay attention to as you develop your strategy for 2013. Below are five trends that you can include in your plans to stay ahead of the game next year.

1. Narrowing of Focus – It’s been common for companies in the past to show up across many different networks, attempting to have a presence everywhere with no real plan for integration. In 2013, the key will be picking a few key areas and putting a strategy behind them. I’d recommend Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. There may be other players in the niche you occupy, but the point is not to try to do it all. Focus on the large networks that will have the biggest impact.
   
   
2. More Facebook Options for Advertisers – Facebook is the #1 social network for brands. And that status will only be solidified as they continue to roll out new options for advertisers in an effort to improve shareholder value. Stay up to date on their announcements and take advantage of all the new options they roll out to see if you can improve the effectiveness of your efforts on their network.
   
   
3. Integration – Yesterday, I mentioned how in 2013 it will be more important to integrate social communities into your website. Your social marketing and web development team need to connect on this topic and see what can be done to incorporate feeds and conversations from various networks onto your website. All social promotions should be given space on your website as well, so you can give them as much exposure as they deserve.
   
   
4. Contests – One of the most proven social marketing strategies are contests. Build at least one into your marketing plan for 2013. Find partners, offer prizes people will get excited about, and have your developer (or a team like Wildfire) build a sleek contest page for you. This is an opportunity to get leads, gain brand awareness, do some PR, and follow up with people who are interested in your offerings.
   
   
5. Offers – The second proven social marketing strategy you need to consider adding to your 2013 plan is a special offer specifically to your social community. Facebook now has an “offers” tool that makes this easy to test. You can offer a discount to people who Like you on Facebook. Give it a try.

5 Reasons Not to Market on Social Media

1. You don’t buy all the hype. Social media is a passing trend in pop culture.
2. You don’t understand it, and it would take far too long to learn.
3. You can’t measure the Return on Investment it offers.
4. Your target market is not using social media.
5. You don’t do marketing of any kind, so why would you start there.

If you can believe it, all of the above are answers that I’ve heard people give for why they’re not marketing their business on social media. It’s scary to think that there are still companies out there who haven’t taken the leap and started experimenting with social media.

Let’s take these answers one at a time.

#1 You don’t buy the hype? How long does something have to go on before it’s no longer considered a phase? Facebook, the largest global social network, is about to go public. I think we’re past the “hype” stage. Even if you think something is a hype, isn’t it worth making money off of it while it’s still around?

#2 You don’t understand it? Surely you know someone who does, or you work with someone who does, or you can hire someone to manage it for you. Social media is part of the marketing world now, and you can hire any up and coming marketer straight out of college who can manage the entire process for you.

#3 You can’t measure it? If you measure anything on the web, adding social media to it should not be a problem. Google Analytics now allows you to tie social media sites into your goals, so that you can see what sites those people are coming from that convert into paying customers. And Facebook’s advertising program provides the same type of tracking data that Google AdWords does for those of us who are paying for clicks on the network. At the most basic level, track sales before and after you get involved in social media and tell me there’s no difference.

#4 Your target market is not using social media? At one point, this was a legitimate concern. Not anymore. Everyone and your grandmother is on Facebook, literally. There’s not a market in the world that goes unaffected by social media altogether.

#5 I understand that there are companies out there that don’t spend money on marketing. Either they can’t afford it, or it’s too early, or they don’t know where to get started. I’m here to tell you that social media is a perfect place to get started, and all it has to cost you is a little bit of your time. A page on Facebook or Google+, an account on Twitter, they’re all free and will instantly make you better equipped to promote your business in an online world.

So stop making excuses and start getting involved today!