More Reasons to Use Google+ for Business

You still love Facebook, you’re addicted to Twitter and you’re finally starting to figure out how LinkedIn can help you grow your business. But that doesn’t mean it’s time to abandon the platform that got you an online audience in the first place. Yes, we’re talking about Google – specifically, Google+, the search engine giant’s most under-utilized business tool.

Small businesses, big businesses and all businesses in between can benefit from implementing Google+ into their social media marketing strategies. For one thing, it’s Google. The reasons could stop there, but they don’t. Other reasons to consider using Google+ for business include:

Quick indexing:

Because Google+ is a Google property, the content you share there is going to be indexed more quickly than it would on any other social media channel. That means your content will be on other users’ search engine results pages faster than it will when shared on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. This may seem unfair if you don’t utilize Google+, but you can’t beat them, so you may as well join them and get the great marketing benefits.

Finding prospects:

Although no sane social media management firm would advise a client to leave Facebook or Twitter, there is something to be said about the efficiency of finding prospects on Google+. The “circles” on Google+ are great for segmentation, meaning that they allow you to target your messages to the most relevant audience. Rather than posting something only half your audience cares about, you can post things that are relevant to each of your smaller audiences in Google+ circles. Prospects see one side of you, existing customers see another, and colleagues see someone else. It’s quite brilliant, and although Facebook is trying, it will probably never offer exactly the same thing.

Cool tools:

Google has finally realized that Google+ is going to be primarily used by businesses, so it is refining a set of tools that marketers can use to take their social media marketing to the next level. Soon, a marketer who wants to interact with a user they are interested in as a prospect will not have to wait until that user adds them to a circle. Instead, they will be able to +1, share, or comment on posts from those users – thereby moving those users further along the road to conversion. These changes were confirmed in a December 28 Google blog post.

As far as social media marketing business tools go, you need everything at your disposal: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. If you have already written off Google+ as a marketing tool (as many had when we wrote this, last year), it’s time to give it another try. You may be pleasantly surprised.