Google Plus is a platform above all others. It's micro-blogging aspects makes the social update stand out to your follower when done in the right way. Google Plus can single-handedly bring your blog to the forefront of social marketing, however, you have to understand what to do in order to make this happen.
Some people think that building links are the most important part of marketing for your site.
Others, think the best strategy is link dumping all day long to get the maximum benefits. My strategy actually takes a little longer, but, like the concrete foundation of my home, it will last through anything. This is actually the future of social media marketing on Google Plus.
I want to talk to you about relationship marketing. Why you should forget everything you know about the face of social media, the face of SEO, and focus on the people behind the scenes. This will lead to your success in the future.
The Building Blocks of G+
I have learned a lot in the past six months that I have been on this platform. At first, I thought like you thought. I decided that this was a place where I could put my links and hope for the best. Hey it works on Facebook and Twitter, so why not this social platform? As my time on Google Plus evolved, so did my ideas about how to market on this platform.
One of the best ways to solidify your presence on Google Plus is through the influential people on this platform. There are many ways to make yourself accessible, and here are the top ways that I have found that have brought me out of the woodwork on this platform:
- Interaction on updates
- Engaging in the comments
- Resharing other people's posts
- The ping and it's benefits to your update success
Believe it or not, while you may think your content is King, there are people out there that have no idea about your feelings. Perhaps they actually know nothing about you at all, and the first time they see an update of you, it shouldn't be “Check this out” in the description followed by a link.
[shadowbox]Recommended reading: 5 Incredible Ways To Master Google+ with Circloscope[/shadowbox]
You must have interaction with your followers. Take advantage of the micro-blogging platform and write to your readers on G+! If you have never thought of this before, let me share with you the awesome benefits of doing it this way.
Interaction in your updates
First of all, you are able to create a call to action inside your Google Plus update doing it like this. When you become interactive with your followers, you then become interesting enough for them to want to engage BACK with you on your update, and this is actually the first step to building a solid relationship with these people. Here is an example of an update that I did a little while ago that simply engaged the people:
As you can see, this asked the audience for interaction with me on this post. Even though this didn't have a link back to my website, people still got into the post because I took some time to write out something interesting that people wanted to read. From this post alone, I found out that there were lots of relationships still waiting to be cultivated on Google Plus for me.
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Engaging in the comments
Relationships are built because you make yourself available to the people around you. Now I'm not telling you to go off and comment on every Google Plus update that you see, I'm simply telling you to keep a watchful eye out for posts that interest you where you could give an educated opinion on something. This is the best way to also get people to circle you on Google Plus.
People are looking for others that have knowledge about certain subjects and will want to cultivate that relationship with you. Comment engagements are a great way to get recognition in this aspect of relationship marketing. It's easy to plus one someone's update and move on to the next one that you may be interested in, but I challenge you to take the next step and become involved with the people around you.
Resharing
Resharing is another great way to let people know that you're interested in building a relationship with them. Again, remember the first point. Be interactive every time you share something. Even when it's advertising someone else's update. Make it as informative as you can get it and also make sure you ping that person in the update. That way they can see what you have done, and more than likely, they will comment on your update to thank you for taking that extra time to expound on their update. Does this automatically put you in someone else's good grace? Not by a long shot. Anything that's worth doing online, will take time. It will have to be done consistently and without fail. I know that sometimes we get in a rush and when we share someone's post, we don't really put all of the emphasis on there that we should. But I challenge you to change your outlook on Google Plus this week and try to take some extra time to use these steps. It will help you build relationships on this platform.
The Final Thought
Just as in the update quote above, relationships do breed opportunities that you would have never gotten without them. Being patient with social marketing on Google Plus will reveal a lot of positive things in your marketing strategies on this platform. Strategies that you have never seen before! So take advantage of the benefits of Google Plus and forget everything you know about social marketing, and start focusing on the people.
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