By Nicola Brookes, Atex Communications Manager
Posted on December 1 07:30, 2011
For years, working with Google has been seen as one of the best ways that businesses can increase public awareness of their products and services, and Google+ is its latest creation. Launched in late June, there still seems to be a lot of confusion around what this actually is; but in essence, it’s a social network which makes it easy for content to be shared between Google users.
Already boasting around 60 million users, it is shaping up to be the fastest growing and most advanced social network, and one of the best ways for businesses to reach their demographic and target customers.
One of the qualities that makes Google+ such a valuable tool is the +1 feature, which helps to enhance SEO. Businesses often rely on internet marketing via their website, and nothing is as effective as SEO for driving traffic to the site. Google+ allows users to +1 a post or website, which is similar to the "Like" feature of Facebook. The more +1s a website or blog post gets, the higher it will be ranked on Google.
Another benefit is that users can easily reach their target markets. You are able to distribute interesting content to a wide audience, and likewise you'll be able to find a wealth of original information that's of interest to you.
As with Facebook, Google+ has communities known as ‘Circles’. These act just like the Facebook communities where people can share content and information. Marketers are able to target their customers much more easily thanks to these circles, and can direct the marketing at only the people who will be interested in what they have to offer. This means that few people will ‘un-follow’ or dislike a certain form of marketing, which usually contributes to lower SEO rankings. To be given the tools to customise a marketing campaign or promotion to reach specific circles is a very attractive proposition.
Another advantage is that Google is much more likely to keep a tighter rein on spam content than Facebook or Twitter have been able to. An overload of spam causes people to become jaded to the advertisements and marketing campaigns they see - reducing spam will help Google+ to be a more conducive environment for those who are looking to conduct their internet marketing through the network.
Arguably, one of the downsides of Twitter is that information can be auto posted – meaning that content can be considered less trustworthy than on other sites. Google+ doesn’t offer this as an option, although this has been greeted with mixed reactions. In a way this makes it more difficult for frequent posters, as they are being forced to post manually. However, it ensures that the quality of posts is higher, as only content that is actually valuable will be worth taking the time to post manually.
The contextual relevance of the circles on Google+ makes it much easier for people to obtain useful links, thus making link building on Google+ more effective than on Facebook. The feature enables users to establish communities and find topical authorities on subjects of interest, so any links posted are treated with more attention, which in turn leads to more effective link building for those who can be considered authorities on a particular topic. This helps to indicate how large a person's sphere of influence is.
The world of social networking is essential for marketers and in time, I’m sure that many will find that Google+ is one of the most valuable online tools they have at their disposal.
