Google Plus Best Practices

Should you use Google+ for your business? Here are things to consider:

• Google+ is tied to Google search
• If your prospects aren't in your Google+ community, then it will be more difficult for them to find you.
• Facebook and LinkedIn are more closed than Google+.
• With Google+ you can follow new people easier. For instance, you can find someone, follow them and follower their followers - much like Twitter.

• Connect: "Find your audience, your fans, and your followers on Google+. Create circles to target your message to specific members of your community. Put the +1 button on your website so that people can share your content with others across the web." (http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/learnmore/community/)
• Circles: "You share different things with different people. But sharing the right stuff with the right people shouldn't be a hassle. Circles make it easy to put your friends from Saturday night in one circle, your parents in another, and your boss in a circle by himself, just like real life." (http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/)
• Real-time stream: Just like facebook and twitter, new updates show up at the top of your stream or newsfeed.
• Hangouts: "Bumping into friends while you're out is one of the best parts of going out and about. With Hangouts, spontaneity hits the web. Whether you're home in your pajamas or hitting the streets with your mobile phone, video hangouts let you bring up to 9 people into your world. It's the next best thing to everyone being there." (http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/)
• Search: "What was that restaurant your friend was raving about last week? Who's got some good tips on ballroom dancing? What's it like to be at the World Cup? Search brings you updates from your circles, news from around the web and public Google+ posts, giving you instant access to the topics you care about and the people who care about them along with you. "(http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/)
• Photo uploads: "Taking photos is fun. Sharing photos is fun. Getting photos off your phone and on to the web is pretty much the opposite of fun. That's why we created Instant Upload: so that you never have to worry about losing those memories. From now on, your photos upload themselves." (http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/)
• Chat: "Coordinating friends can be hard, especially if you're trying to text a bunch of people at once. Messenger brings all those separate conversations into one simple group chat, so everyone is on the same page with no hassle." (http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/)
• Sharing: Sharing is easy. Just click the Share button below the post you want to share. You can share the post with those in the circles you created.
• Tagging: You can tag a person by typing in either the + or @ symbol just before the person's name. The person will be notified that you tagged them and linked to your post.

You can also search on Google.com by adding site:plus.google.com to your search, and then adding in a search term that you think might prove useful in finding someone of interest. For instance, if you want to find people talking about "strategic planning," you can type the following into Google: site:plus.google.com strategic planning. If that doesn't narrow it down enough, you can add more search terms, and you can use a -term type of search to filter even more.

Jim’s team came to simple but powerful conclusions. One important point they make is referred to as the ‘hedgehog’ concept. A key to greatness is finding the intersection, referred to as the sweet spot, between your talent, passion, and economic opportunity. Jim’s diagram below helps to illustrate these points.

Helpful third-party website that scrapes publicly visible data from Google+ and puts it into categories - http://findpeopleonplus.com

Chris Brogan is a top expert on Google+ for business. Chris is asked continually, "Why Would You EVER Want to Start Work on Another Social Network?" Here's what he says:

This social network is run by Google, the #1 search engine in the world and gateway to YOUR business. Why else? Because Google is pressing hard to use this technology to build an underpinning for many of its other services, and this will grow your business, if used well. This platform is a must-use platform, in my opinion. And when should you start? Now. While people aren't all there yet.

Below is a video where Chris provides a webinar on how to leverage Google+. The video helps to not only hear of important strategies, but to see "how" as he shares screen shots.

Highlights by David Willden