These are notes taken at the DFW Rocks Social Media Day 2013 presentation on The Google Effect: Google+ co-presented by Lissa Duty and A.J. Wood.
Be careful with the type of names that you use for your circles. They aren’t visible to the public yet (unless you share them), but they may in the future.
THINGS TO KNOW
- The cover photo size is 2120 x 1192
- The view is similar to Facebook. You can change to streamline the look for small monitors by clicking more.
- Add people to circles – get creative with the names and share circles to get others to follow people in the circle
- Use DoShare to schedule posts – Chrome Extension
If you are a surfer or a cat lover, you can easily find groups of people that share similar interests. Even though Google+ isn’t that popular yet, there are several opportunities to get with others that share your interests (one of its strengths).
You can no longer get a verified name as a profile, but you can as a business. Also, if you have verified your name, and you change your name on your page, you will lose the verification and never get it back. The moral of the story – pick a name that you can stick with, and won’t change.
Lissa: Learn from others
Tips For Making Your Google+ Profile
- Intro – First 77 characters show in a Google+ search. Use hyperlinks – public updates show in search results.
- If you are going to hyperlink be careful what you hyperlink to, you may wish to not hyperlink to a location outside of Google+. And be sure to make some of your content public, not just posting to your circles.
A.J.: But with that being said, one of the good things about Google+ is that you can have some private content that is only shown to those in your Google circles.
INCLUDE LINKS
- Include links to other social media profiles and your website
- Contributor – Claim Google Authorship (get a photo next to posts in search results in Google)
A.J.: If you have it set up properly on your blog, authorship SHOULD auto-populate on Google+, however, it is still a good idea to do it manually. Also, if you do more than 12 links then you are probably not going to see the other links, so just put your most important links first.
HIGHLIGHT POSTS
- *BOLD*
- _ITALICS_
- -STRIKETHROUGH-
This is one of the nice things about Google+ is that you can format your stuff to stand out. Other sites like Facebook doesn’t offer this.
FEATURES
- Can edit your posts later (even if they don’t have a picture)
- Can use hashtags
- Use keywords – indexed in Google search
- Control comments / Reshares.com
Courtesy of www.MartinShervington.com – has some great information about Google+.
A.J.: Unlike FB and Twitter which limits you on text, you can put lots of text into a Google+ post. This gives you the possibility to be able to write full articles right in Google+ instead of just sharing links from articles existing outside of this platform. Something to keep in mind.
CIRCLES
- Post to a specific circle (direct message).
- The selected circle will receive a notification – only that circle and YOU see the update.
- Create opt-in circles – ask them to let you know how often they would like a notification and add them to those circles accordingly.
For example, you create a circle called “New Engagers” – you can then ask these people how often you want them to hear from you. If you post something public, everyone sees it. If you post to a circle, the people in that circle get a notification that you have posted something new.
A.J.: I think the circle method is interesting in creating a certain segment, or grouping. Its like the newsfeed in FB. You have to be there to see it. But you get different engagement levels from getting with those in different groups etc. The thing is, you don’t have people posting barbecue pics in your different circles. Like it’s been said in different presentations, if you want to sell to people, you can do that, but this also helps you to engage with your audience as well. Also, the majority of the info shown in your newsfeed doesn’t show to all your people.
In Google+ it is shown to everyone in your circles. Does everyone see it right then and there? No, since people are not constantly on Google+, but you have a much better shot at having a better engagement with your audience.
Lissa: It is important that you don’t post too much to your circles unless that is what they want from you. Don’t notify too much or they will mute you.
GOOGLE+ PAGES
- You can have more than one manager.
- You can add an engaging cover photo.
- In search recent update shows, keep updated to show you are active.
- Add Google+.
GOOGLE+ HANGOUTS
It is a video, it is a hangout. You can have 10 people actively engaging in hangout, and an unlimited number of people just watching. Great way to brand yourself as an authority.
CREATE GOOGLE+ AUTHORSHIP
This means that the articles that you write will have your avatar show up. Here is the thing, even if you are number 10 in the search results, if you are the only one with an avatar, people are more likely to click on your link because it has an avatar attached.
- Add URL to Contributor Links in G+
- Add G+ link in Author Bio in WordPress (ex: <a href=”https://plus.google.com/+AJWood?rel=author”>Google+</a>)
- Genesis Framework for WordPress (ex: <link rel=”author” href=”https://plus.google.com/+AJWood/posts”/>)
Download their slidedeck!
CONTACT INFO:
Lissa Duty:
LissaDuty.com
Lissa@LissaDuty.com
214-763-4340
Twitter: @LissaDuty
A.J. Wood:
ajwood.com/youtube
/facebook
/gplus
/twitter
/linkedin
(Please Note: Each link will go to the corresponding page for A.J. Wood)
Lissa: A.J., you need to teach us to do that for our social media accounts.
A.J.: Sounds like a class for next year at DFW Rocks 2014!
