How to Use

GooGle+ for Business

Guide to Using Googles Social Network for Business

A publication of

How To USe GooGle+ for BUSINeSS

How To USe GooGle+ for BUSINeSS

is THis eBooK riGHT for Me?

Not quite sure if this ebook is right for you? See the below description to determine if your level matches the content you are about to view.

inTroDuCTorY
Introductory content is for marketers who are new to the subject. This content typically includes step-by-step instructions on how to get started with this aspect of inbound marketing and learn its fundamentals. After reading it, you will be able to execute basic marketing tactics related to the topic.

How To use GooGle+ for Business

By Magdalena Georgieva Maggie Georgieva is an inbound marketing manager at HubSpot responsible for creating new offers, including ebooks and webinars. Maggie has previously helped with HubSpots email marketing program and the companys landing page creation and optimization. Maggie is a prolific marketing blogger and has also written for publications like BostInnovation.com and The St. Petersburg Times.

inTerMeDiaTe
Intermediate content is for marketers who are familiar with the subject but have only basic experience executing strategies and tactics on the topic. This content typically covers the fundamentals and reveals more complex functions and examples. After reading it, you will feel comfortable leading projects with this aspect of inbound marketing.

follow Me on TwiTTer @MGieva

aDvanCeD
Advanced content is for marketers who are, or want to be, experts on the subject. In it, we walk you through advanced features of this aspect of inbound marketing and help you develop complete Share This ebook! mastery of the subject. After reading it, you will feel ready not only to execute strategies and tactics, but also to teach others how to be successful.
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HUBSpoTS All-IN-oNe MArkeTING SofTwAre

... brings your whole marketing world together in one, powerful, integrated system.

leAd GeNerATIoN

U q

ConTenTs
wHaT GooGle+ is anD wHY iT MaTTers /3 How To seT up a GooGle+ Business paGe /6 THe BenefiTs of GooGle+ in searCH /11 6 BesT praCTiCes for MarKeTinG on GooGle+ /22 ConClusion & aDDiTional resourCes /27

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Get found: Help prospects find you online Convert: Nurture your leads and drive conversions analyze: Measure and improve your marketing plus more apps and integrations

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Video overview

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MArkeTING ANAlyTIcS

How To USe GooGle+ for BUSINeSS

How To USe GooGle+ for BUSINeSS

users.

on the day Google announced the release of Google+ business pages, hundreds of media outlets

I expect brands will notice this and will build marketing plans around it.
Bradley Horowitz vp of product, Google+

covered the story and drew attention to its importance. while many reporters and bloggers viewed it as a great improvement to Google+s feature set, some decided to take a more controversial angle, viewing the story through the lens of a facebook rivalry.

pcworld, for example, led off with a story about how, in Mark zuckerbergs words, Google is trying to build their own little version of facebook. It has long been discussed that Google seeks to penetrate the social market, which it previously attempted to do with Google Buzz (which has now been shut down). will Google+ be the key weapon the search engine giant needs to achieve its goal? can this new network, with its improved feature set, beat facebook? These are all questions we dont quite have the answers for yet. But one thing is clear--marketers are provided with a completely new platform to explore and leverage.
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launched in June 2011, Google+ is a new social network that has attracted the attention of marketers. In just over six months, the platform amassed more than 90 million users, posing a serious challenge to linkedIns 135 million membership base. despite this impressive growth, the adoption of Google+ doesnt yet compare to that of facebook, which has more than 800 million

In this guide, we will help you make sense of this new environment. well give you step-bystep instructions for how to set up and optimize your Google+ business page as well as the best practices to use in order to generate more buzz around your company. lastly, we will touch upon different aspects of Google+ that will impact your search engine optimization and blogging efforts. welcome, and we hope you enjoy the read! Share This ebook!

ever since its launch, Google+ has been open to individuals to share stories with their circles, get involved in discussions, post photos, and participate in video conference calls (called Hangouts). However, the social network didnt provide businesses with much value, and many marketers were left wondering how to truly benefit from Google+. In early November, Google+ finally rolled out business pages. Now the platform not only enables companies to create pages, but also encourages businesses to grow their following. I expect brandsThis eook! this and will build marketing plans around it, said Bradley Horowitz, vice Share will notice president for products at Google+ in an article for The New York Times. His statement definitely
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reinforces the potential of the social network for marketing purposes.

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cHApTer 1

...make the same kinds of lasting connections with your customers online the way you can in real life.
Dennis Troper product Management Director, Google+ pages

wHaT GooGle+ is anD wHY iT MaTTers

Google+ is a social network powered by the search engine giant Google. Many see this platform as a challenge to facebooks domination of the social media space. with more than 90 million users and a growing influence on search, Google+ has definitely emerged as a key player in the online marketing ecosystem. Google+ allows businesses to create pages and develop relationships with prospects and customers on multiple levels. Individuals can add a brand to a specific Google+ Circle, share a Google+ page with their network, and interact with the content posted by that company. for instance, users can +1 (or in other words, endorse) the updates a company publishes, leave comments, upload photos, and tag the brand in them. An interesting aspect of this platform is that its Hangouts feature enables companies to engage with fans, prospects, and customers through video conference calls. Video chat is definitely the element that distinguishes Google+ from other existing social networks. we want to help you make the same kinds of lasting connections with your customers online the way you can in real life, wrote dennis Troper, product Management director, Google+ pages. Video communication is one way to make this happen. Share This ebook!

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How To USe GooGle+ for BUSINeSS

How To USe GooGle+ for BUSINeSS

10 Quick facts About Google+ 1

pages cant add people to circles until the page is added first or mentioned.

pages dont receive notifications via email, text, or in the Google bar.

pages can be made for a variety of different entities, whereas profiles can only be made for people.

pages dont have the option to share to extended circles.

3
them.

The default privacy setting for elements on your business page is public.

9
pages have the +1 button.

local pages have special fields that help people find the business physical location.

Google+ pages automatically unfollow you if you unfollow

Google+ pages cant even mention you unless youre connected.

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pages cant +1 other pages, nor can they +1 content on the web.

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How To USe GooGle+ for BUSINeSS

Set Up your Google+ page in 5 easy Steps

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How To seT up a GooGle+ Business paGe

while Google indicated that Google+ pages wouldnt be immediately accessible to all, theyre actually becoming readily available. In fact, weve already created HubSpots Google+ page, so you can follow our updates and add HubSpot to one of your circles by clicking here! you are probably also eager to create a Google+ page for your own business. The process isnt difficult, and in this section, we will walk you through it step by step.

choose an Accessible Gmail Account

If we learned anything from creating our own page, its that Google+ pages administrative capabilities could use improvement. Avoid creating your business page through just any old account, such as a personal gmail account. Instead, choose a gmail account

that is accessible to multiple members of your marketing team (e.g. companymarketingteam@ gmail.com), and use that account to create your page. Share This ebook!

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Step-by-Step Tutorial
Because Google+ pages administrative capabilities currently arent as sophisticated as say, facebooks (which enable you to assign multiple page admins regardless of the pages origins), youll want to choose a host account that makes your page as accessible to multiple contributors as possible. The Google+ your Business Google+ page has indicated that Google has already started working on multi-admin support and ownership transfer. for now, we recommend making your account as accessible to other team members as possible. After selecting your classification, fill in your basic information, including your page name (i.e. your company name), your business website Url, your category (i.e. your industry), and Visit https://plus.google.com/pages/create and if you see the option to create a Google+ page, get started! follow the wizard (its much like facebooks page creation wizard), and choose the most appropriate option to classify your business. Share This ebook! Share This ebook! the classification of your pages content (i.e. any Google+ user, 18 years of age or older, etc.). youll be able to select from the following options:

* local Business or place * product or Brand * company, Institution or organization * Arts, entertainment or Sports * other

HAVe QUeSTIoNS?
post them to HubSpots Google+ page.

create a page with the desired Account

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time into optimizing your page and sharing a few links to valuable content before you start promoting it to the masses.

promoting a blank page isnt a great way to

Customize Your Public Profile

convince people that your page is valuable enough to add to their circles. So invest some

The third step involves customizing your public profile. The profile basics include your tagline (think of it as your business elevator pitch) and an image (your company logo is a great option). keep it concise, yet descriptive.

5 4
promote your page

optimize further

At the most basic level, this is really all you need to do to get your page launched. But as any smart marketer knows, the basics arent usually enough. Intelligent marketers understand the importance of optimizing their page to make it not only more engaging, but also more valuable and effective for lead generation. In this step, follow Google+s prompts to create an effective page, and remember -- Google+ is a social network.

Although every social network has its specific nuances and behaviors, many of the same best practices will still apply. regularly share fresh content, react and respond to your fans, be engaging, and optimize for lead generation. Then measure, adapt your strategy, and optimize your presence based on your own individual results and goals. Share This ebook!

At this point, youve created the skeleton of your page, and Google+ will now prompt you to promote your page. our recommendation is to customize your page even further and start sharing a few updates before you begin telling the world about it. Share This ebook!

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5 ways Google+ changes Search

cHApTer 3

THe BenefiTs of GooGle+ in searCH

Here at HubSpot, weve picked out a number of ways Google+ will influence how you will get traffic from Googles search engine, whether by boosting your position in search results, increasing the chances that people will click into your site, or other factors.

Improving Googles Intelligence

what you are reading, but now they can also see which of your friends are most important to you. In the past, they could have had a broad vision of your followers on Twitter, but now they can directly see exactly how you interact with those people. for example, do you frequently share links with only a small handful of people? Share This ebook!

As a result of Google+, Google will be able to improve its search engine results pages through the enhanced information it will be able to collect from your social circle. Google+ offers a lot of elements that will allow Google to understand trends and what people are interested faster than ever before. Not only can they see what you share with your friends or

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authors and you tend to prefer a few of them or specific topics that the blog covers, Google can better adjust its rankings to show what you are interested in.

Google will now know which of your friends you trust and listen to the most. Also, Google will have better insight into who your favorite authors are on certain blogs. If a blog has many

Google is getting deeper vision into how individual users share & discuss things on the internet.

Google can now more easily police who has a real profile and who is a spammer.

If you have a very tight relationship with a small network and a broader network that you are less engaged with, Google could know to promote your tight relationships in search results or use ads over the broad network. essentially, Google is getting deeper vision into how individual users share and discuss things on the internet. In the past, it had a limited vision of this. Now Google can own the complete picture. when placing recommendations on the results pages or looking for a certain page to promote, Share This ebook!

Improved Search results Quality

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Another benefit that Google+ brings to search is that results become much harder to cheat. Google can now more easily police who has a real profile and who is a spammer, and watch how they try to influence search results. When Google sees a profile that only shares and votes for things on one website and nothing else, it knows who target as a spammer. If it sees profiles dominated exclusively by +1s, it might get suspicious. lets take this one step further.

If profiles are only following other profiles characterized by such behavior, Google might consider them suspect. less gaming in Googles results is a long-time goal for the search engine giant. Some spam sites are trying to sell +1 votes already, but it is unlikely to be worthwhile-Google can easily watch for profiles that do nothing but spam votes and discount the value of those votes.

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Changing How You Get Traffic

Google also rolled out its version of the tweet or share button, the +1. These +1 buttons appear in Googles search results and can be embedded on other websites as well. They are tied to a destination page address, just like shares or tweets are.

+1
be aware that the number of +1 votes you have for a specific page can affect its Quality Score, which is critical when working on a budget for your paid ads. This isnt a huge problem, but its important to be aware of. every time you move a page or change the address of something, youll be resetting the +1 count for that page.

The +1 count that is displayed on each button is based on the address of the page where it sits. This detail is really important to be aware of, because this may influence how you design your website. If youre creating landing pages for paid search campaigns, and your pages have several variations, all of the +1 votes that you earn will be broken down separately for each page address. Also,

inCorporaTinG THe +1 BuTTon on Your BloG

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No +1 Button

with +1 Button

websites using Googles +1 button get 3.5X the Google+ visits.

In order to determine the value of Googles +1 button, we looked at data from HubSpots entire customer base of more than 5,000 businesses. We compared referral traffic levels from plus. Google.com (Google+) for websites that have Googles +1 button installed and for those that dont. The result? Websites that use Googles +1 button generated 3.5 times more traffic from Google+ than websites that dont have the button installed.

whats the marketing takeaway?

Use social sharing buttons! while this statement Second, social sharing buttons act as a callseems obvious, many businesses overlook the value of social sharing buttons and dont use them. Social sharing buttons serve two important purposes. first, they make it super easy and quick for a visitor to share your content on social media sites. Share This ebook! to-action on your blog that helps remind visitors that their online connections might be interested in the content as well. If you arent yet using the Google +1 button on your website, its definitely time to start.

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Improved click-Through rates

Dan suggests that there could be a powerful first post effect that marketers can leverage. In other words, people might be more willing to share a piece of content if they have a chance to be one of the first people to spread the word. In any case, now Google+ gives us more opportunities to speculate about social proof and its effect on social and viral behavior online.

The fourth major factor here, which is an often forgotten attribute to Seo success, is click-through rate, or how often people who see you on their results page actually click on your page in the results. one of the powerful ideas behind the +1 votes is that if you can see that certain results are extremely popular, or that people found a specific resource particularly helpful, you have that information available without even clicking into the site.

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You can see that 500 people have already found a certain page useful before you ever click or read any other details about it.

you can see that 500 people have already found a certain page useful before you ever click or read any other details about it. This is similar to what Twitter and facebook have given us access to with some of their customized buttons that reveal numbers of times something has been shared. In fact, HubSpots Social Media Scientist dan zarrella has discovered some interesting data around social sharing.

The access to this insight will strongly encourage searchers to click on specific good pages and ignore ones that are not as popular with their readers. If youd like to see an example of how this can work, look at your Google webmaster Tools dashboard. Google provides a chart to show your click-through rate with and without +1 results in the search results. Share This ebook!

%
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How To USe GooGle+ for BUSINeSS

for example, in this diagram from Google, you can see that people who saw HubSpot in the search results with +1 information next to our websites homepage were substantially more likely to click on our link. This is great reinforcement for us to place +1 buttons across our site, so that all of our pages can take advantage of the improved click-through rate!

DireCT ConneCT
As you can see, Google+ is not just like any social network out there. It has the power to affect our search habits, and the search engine giant is not afraid to use that to its advantage to penetrate the social media space. while here we covered most of the important ways in which Google+ will affect search results, there is one more element that needs to be discussed. with the launch of Google+ Business pages, Google also rolled out an interesting new integration between Google+ and Google search. The name of this integration is direct connect, and in the next section, we will discuss Share This ebook! what it does and how to set it up.

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How to Set Up Google+ direct connect

Users who want to find a companys Google+ page can now simply add a + in front of the company name in Google.com search to go directly to a companys Google+ page and skip over the traditional search engine results page. In order to enable this awesome new + search operator to work for your business, you first need to install the Google+ Direct Connect code on your business website to help verify that your Google+ page is the official page for your business.

To do this, go to your Google+ page, and click the connect your website link under the Get Started section. once you have done this, you will be taken to a screen that gives you options for six different Google+ buttons. Share This ebook!

one of your options is also to display no button and just install the Google+ direct connect code on your website. That said, dont you want people to connect with you on Google+? So go ahead and use one of the buttons to turn website visitors into Google+ page subscribers! once you add the code to your website, you will be eligible to be included in Google direct connect. But keep in mind that this doesnt happen automatically. Google has stated it will be using an algorithm to determine which companies get included. Make sure you are promoting your Google+ page on your website, blog, and other properties off of Google+ in an effort to help influence the Direct Connect algorithm and get your business listed. Share This ebook!

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How to optimize your Business presence on Google+

cHApTer 4

6 BesT praCTiCes for MarKeTinG on GooGle+

Google+ is similar to other social networks when it comes to marketing, but it does have its own strengths and weaknesses. To get the most from your Google+ Business Page in terms or traffic and leads for your business, follow these best practices:

Share loTS of photos

photos are very important on Google+. A quick look at a Google+ feed will tell you that lots of individual images are shared by users. This is slightly different from facebook, where users might upload an entire album of images at one time. Think about your business and marketing visually. which images, charts, or slides can you share on Google+ to ignite conversations and increase the viral spread of your content? Google+ is built for sharing images, so take advantage of it.
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Photos!

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Add recommended links

encourage people to Share your posts

Under the About tab of your Google+ page, you have the option to add recommended links in the right side bar. dont let this space go to waste. Instead, add links to important blog articles and lead generation offers to drive more traffic and leads for your business.

Sharing on Google+ is a catalyst for increasing the virality of your content. when you post a message, photo, or link on Google+, be sure to ask your subscribers to share your content with the people in their circles. This is similar to asking people to please retweet on Twitter.

promote your Google+ page on your Blog and website

Analyze Traffic and Leads from Google+

To get real business value from Google+, you have to have a community of people there to consume and engage with your content. In order to get people to add your Google+ page to their circles, you need to promote the page in places where you are already attracting visitors, such as your homepage, blog side bar, or other social media accounts. cross-promotion is key to building a strong Google+ community. Share This ebook!

So is this Google+ thing actually working for your business? To determine this, youll need to look at the traffic and leads that have been driven from Google+. You can do this by looking at referral traffic from plus.Google.com to your website, or if you are a HubSpot customer, HubSpot will segment all traffic, leads, and customers from Google+ for you as part of our marketing analytics.

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The same messages you share with your family might not be the same messages you want to share with your boss.

use CirCles To seGMenT Your MessaGes

you must be thinking, why do we need yet ANoTHer social network? frankly, that is a reasonable question to ask. As youve read through this ebook, you have learned some of the reasons Google wants the platform to be successful: search. what about users? why would someone want to use Google+ as an individual user?

Hangouts and the ability to cool, but arguably the biggest selling point of Google+ is circles. Unlike other social networks, Google+ was built with the unique idea that

different groups of people about it this way. The same messages you share with your family might not be the same messages you want to share with your boss at work.

collaborate easily with others is prefer different content. Think

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INTrodUcTIoN To INBoUNd MArkeTING ANAlyTIcS

Segmentation is critical for organizing our lives online today.

!
Google+ solves this problem by using what it calls circles. circles are no more than groups of people that users can create and label. for example, you might have different circles for friends, family, and coworkers, and you would place new connections into their respective circle. And yes, people can be added to more than one circle. once you have circles created, you can then decide to share a Google+ message with one or multiple circles. Segmentation is critical for organizing life online today. organize your online life with Google+. create the circles you need to properly communicate with everyone in your life.

ConClusion & aDDiTional resourCes

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Be a smart marketer, and keep a close eye on this emerging environment.

due to its low membership base compared to facebook, it is worth recognizing its youth as well as its strong tie to search. As we already mentioned in this ebook, Google+ is not just any network. It is a platform that is directly impacting search results and reshaping our experience of doing research in Google. Be a smart marketer, and keep a close eye on this emerging environment.

Having read this ebook, you are now aware of the many aspects in which Google+ will impact marketers. The truth is, there will undoubtedly be a lot more features coming to the social network. dennis Troper shared that Google has received some great feedback on Google+ pages already and will be working on providing even more features soon. So what is coming to Google+ pages next? A few of your top requests [are ones that] weve already started working on, such as multi-admin support, ownership transfer, and page analytics, wrote Troper. These are definitely popular features that are indispensable from a marketing perspective. What is more, facebook already offers the ability to add multiple admins and to gain insights around sharing. No doubt, Google will keep investing effort into improving both the functionality and usability of its social platform. It has to if it wants to compete with facebooks dominance in that space. while many might be underestimating the potential of Google+ Share This ebook!

Additional resources:
Add HubSpots Google+ page to your circles. Guide: learning Seo from the experts webinar: Google Instant - Major change for Seo

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Measure THe iMpaCT of GooGle+

Sign up for HubSpots 30-day free trial to start monitoring social media conversations and measuring your success on Twitter, facebook, linkedIn, and Google+.

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