Google Plus

Promote your presence on Google+

For starters, more followers means a chance for even more recommendations among friends across Google and the web. And of course, more followers means the potential for more engagement - more comments, more hangouts, more people aware of and talking about what you’re up to.

On your website whenever possible, use the Google+ badge

The Google+ badge makes it easy for visitors to your site to find and follow you on Google+. Right from the badge, visitors can follow your Google+ page, +1 your site, share your site with their circles, see which of their friends have +1’d or followed your site, and click through to visit your Google+ page. Adding the badge provides another benefit: it proves your site is yours and lets Google connect all the +1’s from your Google+ page with those from your Google search results.

Take a look and familiarise yourself with the Google+ community guidelines:  http://support.google.com/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107107

A few tips before you start:

1) Before jumping into a new social space, listen to what people are saying about you, about your industry, about related products - is there already a healthy discussion you could be a part of? On Google+ listening begins with searching. Once live, make sure you continue to ask for and listen to feedback from your followers, and never stop searching the wider chatter.

2) Don’t be afraid of negative feedback, see this example from Cadbury’s UK: “As one of the first brands to be active and appear in 'What's Hot', we've sparked occasional debate, but spotting that early gave us the chance to positively engage with the community and learn from our activities." As with other social networks, use the platform to engage positively with negative feedback.

3) No two platforms attract quite the same crowd, and G+ is no exception. Much like Twitter, G+ is a network where individuals directly connect and have great influence. Establishing and engaging key influencers in your field can help you positively engage a much wider audience. While there are times you may want to say the same thing across a range of platforms you really should consider how best to present and word it for different audiences.

4) Be Visual: One thing G+ does particularly well is to showcase video and photo content prominently. The 'What's Hot' section on G+ is almost entirely dominated by visual topics, photographs in particular, and while text only updates can get a good response on other platforms on G+ they rarely cut through so it's well worth considering what you can use to catch the eye.

6) Use the unique functionality: Circles are a great way of giving users the specific tailored content they want or to carry on specific conversations with small groups on your page.  Video hangout are a key feature and a powerful way of letting users have a very direct connection with you.