Google+ was introduced last June and yesterday I made my first post. Have you tried it yet? It’s an ongoing experiment but guess what: YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE THERE, or will be soon. Especially if you are in B2B. Google+ is now open to business brands. Since Google+ starts to weave together all your online personas with twitter- and Facebook-like features, I encourage you to jump in and get up to speed now.
TIP: Organize your content and a rchitecture around the top 3 messages that support your company’s business goals.
Here is some vocabulary and best practices to get you started.
CIRCLES. Circles are a way to organize your contacts. Once you get on Google+ and establish yourself, start circling people you want to listen to and be heard by. I was advised to take it slowly. You can create and get rid of circles, or place a person in multiple circles.
Consider establishing circles around your company’s top 3 messages, or “content pillars.” For instance, I have 3 circles so far, titled Relationships, Innovation & Experience, and Our Markets – but nobody can see that. When you name a circle, it’s private to you. These are our company’s top 3 messaging buckets that support our business goals. By organizing around your top 3 content areas, you will create an ENVIRONMENT that nurtures your customers, prospects and friends.
TIP: You could develop a circle with great content and share it with your other circles. Any person can click on it, add everyone from that circle (or just a few people), make it their own and name it whatever they want.
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE POSTS, GREEN and BLUE. When you create a post, you must select what circles to receive it before it goes live. You can choose to make it Public or Private. If the color key is green, it’s public. Anyone can see it and it shows up in search. If the color key is blue, it’s limited to the circles you selected.
TIP: Thanks to Joe Pulizzi with Junta42 and founder of the Content Marketing Institute for this post on how “GM Uses Google Plus for News Distribution to Media”
HANGOUTS. Hangouts are group video chats with your webcam and can be used to deepen relationships around an area of interest. They currently let you and 9 other people video chat at once (gotta get a better background before I screen test). Companies use hangouts to get input on ideas from developers; host press audiences; or chat around conferences at which your team is speaking.
How do you get in? You get a notification that someone wants to invite you to hangout. Everyone who is participating is in a live thumbnail across the bottom. Whoever is speaking rotates to the bigger window at the top.
TIP: Hangouts are currently public. If you want a private hangout, create a temporary circle. Send the hangout invite to just that circle.
+1 BUTTON POWERS SEARCH. The +1 button 
indicates you LIKE something. When you click it, you can also include a snippet of your own opinion. This is a POWERFUL way for people to show what is important on the web, and for you to increase your brand’s online influence. +1 is the BEST REASON to post GOOD, RELEVANT CONTENT. Google+ is a wonderful place to post content media, rich media and formatting. You can find conversations that touch and extend your core content.
TIP: Ripples plays a movie on how content goes across Google+. You can go back in the history of any post, see how the post spreads, and who shared it.
What I will do differently on Google+ than I did on twitter and Facebook. I vow to only add valuable content related to our top 3 brand messages in support of our business goals. These are Relationships, Innovation, and domain expertise in the Hospitality, Government, Multifamily Housing and related markets. To start, I will also choose my friends differently than I did before: only people I KNOW. I will ALWAYS be respectful of your stream; no flooding.
QUESTION: Will Google+ replace LinkedIn? I hope not. The marketplace
needs competition.
For more articles on Google+, please click here.
What is your main takeaway from Google+? Did you get started this week?
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Heartfelt thanks to the high value webinars from Bulldog Reporter PR University and especially these teachers on the Google+ webinar:
Jon Greer, Training Director, Bulldog PR University
Rebecca Davis, EVP, Digital Influence, Ogilvy
Jennifer Lashua, Global Social Media Strategist, Social Media Center of Excellence, Intel
Vidar Brekke, Chief Product Officer, Conversion
Mark Traphagen, Internet Marketing Manager, Virante
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