In the beginning, Google+ was just a baby with substantially less activity and users than Facebook. So, many beginning bloggers and small businesses simply didn’t need it. At the time, people just didn’t believe Google+ was worth the time and effort. However, things are very different in 2013 for bloggers hoping to promote their small businesses online. Here are four reasons why I believe all small businesses should be socializing on Google+:
1) Integrates All of the Google Features
Currently, there’s only one company with the ability to integrate the hundreds and hundreds of Google features into a single social network. Need an example?
Let’s say that you’ve located a great sounding restaurant while on Facebook. Now, you need to get directions from where you’re located to that particular restaurant. This will require copying the address, then pasting it onto another site in order to get directions. In most cases, beginner bloggers use Google Maps.
Well, Google+ integrates Google Maps so it’s right there when you need it. Having a presence on Google+ makes it simpler for your target audience to find the brick-and-mortar location(s) of your small business.
2) Travel Expenses are Reduced Using Google Hangouts
If you small business has multiple offices, or multiple employees, it can be difficult coordinating activities. The cost of travel expenses to have everyone meet in one place can be astronomical.
So, what’s a more cost effective solution? Google Hangouts. This is another feature that’s automatically integrated with your Google+ profile. Google Hangouts gives small business owners an easy ay to host video conferences and brainstorming sessions for free. All your employees will need is a working webcam. Many small business owners simply post the online meeting information on their company blog. That way, everyone on your staff knows about the Google Hangouts meeting.
3) It’s Google… So, it will continue to grow!
By June 2012, Google reported having 425 million Gmail users. These users automatically have access to the Google+ integrated features. Today, however, Google is still more interested in providing quality content to users than growing their social network. Instead, they’ve chosen to focus their efforts on building innovative applications that bring value to their users.
Google+ is still a fairly new social network and blogging platform. Yet, we’re talking about the search engine guru here. There’s no question that the Google social network known as Google+ will continue to grow. As a beginning blogger, you need to ensure that your small business has a presence on Google+.
4) Want more authority online? Google+ gives you just that!
Google has the greatest influence over which websites become successful, and which will fail. It’s the #1 search engine. Therefore, it only makes sense that content shared within Google+ will receive higher rankings than others.
Google+ also helps to give more authority to actual bloggers, both savvy and beginning bloggers. The more popular you become as a Google+ author, the higher your online influence.
Google+ keeps track of all of your posts. This helps to improve the search engine page rankings of small businesses on Google+. All of your content is linked together through your Google+ profile. Now only does this improve the rankings of individual authors, it improves your small business blog’s rankings as a whole.
This article was written by Chad Goulde of TheBlogBuilders.com. Looking for effective techniques for marketing your small business blog using Google+? The Blog Builders can help you create a successful blog using Blog Best Practices today.
Image courtesy Sean MacEntee
Google+ is the best way to showcase small businesses. This article helps me to grow my business. Thank You so much, keep up the good work!