Have you set up your Google+ business page yet? If you are still wondering why you should spend time on another social network, the answer is clear. Search traffic from Google organic search is likely 60-80% of the traffic to your site. In the age of Panda, personalized search results, rich snippets and monthly changes to the Google search algorithm, social cues like +1s, comments and shares are having a greater and greater impact on SERPs and CTRs (search engine results pages and click through rates).

Many influential marketers (including Chris Brogan and Guy Kawasaki) agree and are encouraging brands to start taking advantage of Google Plus’ business opportunities. For example, according to this Social Media Examiner interview, Guy Kawasaki spends 99% of his efforts on Google+.

As search evolves, we recommend experimenting with these tools early so that you are prepared for the changes to come. Dedicating 99% of your social media efforts here is likely not right for every business, but the visibility of Google+ interactions in personalized search results are arguably an example of why Google+ is already essential.

Master Google+ with These 5 Tips.

1. Get on Google+

Now is the time to set up your Google+ Business Page. Google’s desire to get into the social space is driving many of its efforts with Google+ and its integration of social aspects into its other services like search, Adwords and YouTube. The SEO experts are in full swing recommending Google+ so it seems prudent to follow this particular trend and jump on the Google+ bandwagon.

If you’re already on Google+ then consider revisiting whatever you put initially into the About section of your Google+ Business Page. (Just like Facebook, Google+ lets you set up personal profiles and business pages. You have a Business Profile and a Personal Profile but to limit confusion we’ll refer to the business profile as your Google+ Business Page and your personal profile as your Google+ Profile.)

Often when people set up new tools, they add a cursory few lines of bio and then forget that they intended to return at a later date to complete the fields. Give careful consideration to the “about” section of your Profile and Business Page and what keyword phrases best describe your business. Also use the employment field in your Profile to list more than just your company name. The employment field is a perfect place for a short tagline that reinforces the value your business provides to its customers. In addition in both the Profile and Business Page focus on the anchor text you select for the first three links in the sidebar. The About section, Employment field and top 3 Sidebar Links are the most visible sections of your profile and demand the most attention.

 

2. How the Google+ Hovercard Works

The Hovercard is the little pop-up that appears in Google+ when someone hovers over your name or avatar. There are some great tips for controlling what text appears in that hovercard in order to provide Google+ members with information that reflects who you are and why they might be interested in circling you (or your business). Instead of thinking about the hovercard as a Name Tag, think about it as a mini CV or elevator pitch. (Thanks to +Thomas Morffew and +Bob Dunmyer for their experiments to test out how the hovercard works.)

Here’s how the Google+ Hovercard works for Personal Profiles:

1) Tagline trumps all unless it is more than 25 characters
2) Assuming tagline greater than 25 characters, your hover will display in the following order:
a – Current Employment – If “current” box isn’t checked then…
b Education
c – Current Location – If “current” place isn’t identified then…
d – Occupation – If occupation is blank then…
3) A tagline of any length shows up if the above 3 are not included

3. Sharing Web Links with an Image in Google+

Make the most of the +1 button by sharing links and including an image. In many cases, when you share a link in Google+, an image is pulled from the referenced webpage. But sometimes it’s not the image associated with the article but rather an image from the sidebar or other areas of the page. In the top left corner of the image that is automatically pulled in, there are normally back-forward arrows that will let you scroll through the available options. To have greater control over what image is associated with articles on your own blog, consider adding the rich snippet information noted in the link above.

 

4. Migrating Contacts from Facebook to Google+

Are all your friends on Facebook and you’re not sure who is on Google Plus? Well, you can import your Facebook friends into Google+ using Yahoo. Yes, Yahoo. The video below explains step by step how to do that. Please note that the assumption in this scenario is that your Facebook friends’ have used the same email on Facebook as they are using on Google Plus. Even if some of your contacts are not synch’d up, this is still a clever way to get a head start.

 

5. Collecting Content to Share on Google+

Guy Kawasaki offers great tips on managing Google+. In particular, he shares articles with a Google+ circle that includes only himself. As he browses the web using Opera, he shares stories of interest with that circle of 1. No one sees the content but Guy. Then sporadically throughout the day, he shares those stories in posts on Google+. Alternatively, you could use StumbleUpon, Delicious or any other bookmarking tool to collect stories for sharing on Google Plus. At Boxcar Marketing, we are looking forward to the day when you can save and schedule content so there’s not a flurry of activity in small pockets during the day but rather a more steady stream. Until then, here’s Guy’s tip.

Next Steps

1. Still looking for more Google+ tips? Here’s how to set up a Google+ Business page.

2. Ready to get started on Google Plus? Start here and then add Boxcar Marketing to your Google+ circles. (A Google+ page can’t follow a person first, only in response to a follow.)

3. If you’re business page is already on Google+, leave the link to your Google+ Business Page in the comments section and we will follow you back.