5 Google+ Marketing Tips for Your Small Business

Your small business only needs to maintain a presence on Facebook and Twitter, right? Wrong. Even though Google+ can seem like an afterthought in social media, ignore it and you’ll miss out on an enormous audience. There are five things you can do on Google+ to promote yourself in a new and exciting way and boost your brand’s awareness:

1. Use the “About Page” to link your website

Take advantage of this opportunity to tell the audience about your company. This is the perfect place to add important keyword links for your site. Another cool feature is that Google+ allows you add bullet points, so you could simply list your products and services and have them link to pages on your website, which go into more detail.

2. Plan events

Gmail accounts are ubiquitous, and Google+ has really neat optimized features for users. Their event feature, for example, is a great tool to use if your company would like to plan webinars, parties or other events. Regardless of whether or not they are Google+ users, their invitation will sync up with Google Calendar and help you track attendance. It’s also a great way to keep track of planning and logistics related to the event before, during and after!

3. Create frequent optimized posts

By including keywords in your Google+ posts, you will ensure that you show up whenever your followers search for that keyword. This feature is called social search and it is especially effective for those with a large following. By frequently posting relevant content, you are increasing your chances of coming up in Google search results, which is one of the biggest benefits to maintaining a Google+ page.

4. Be a Google Author

Google is constantly looking for new ways to authenticate content. By setting up Google Authorship, you are establishing yourself as a credible source for content. This means that you will be trusted by Google and will be able to reap all of the SEO benefits that come with that. By simply adding a photo of yourself and a miniature bio, you can drive tons of traffic to your page and significantly boost awareness.

5. Talk to the right people

Google+ is all about talking to the right people, and it makes it pretty easy to do so. One way to do this is to join communities that are relevant to your company’s industry and interests and becoming a valuable part of the conversations. Once you have done this, you can begin to form relationships with people, and when they add you to their circles, you can add them to your company’s. Once they are in your circle, the things you post will show up for them.

Danielle Pacelli is the Marketing Coordinator at MycroBurst/Logo Design Guru. MycroBurst is based in Langhorne, Pa. and is an online marketplace for graphic design. MycroBurst provides custom designs through crowdsourcing. Follow Danielle and MycroBurst on Twitter @MycroBurst.