Your Google+ Tips of the Week | Issue 110

Your Google Plus Tips - Issue 110

1. Google Plus Strategies for Building Brand Authority

2. How to improve your local search rankings with Reviews

3. Google+ Removes Real Name Restrictions

Google Plus Strategies for Building Brand Authority 

The above image was inspired by a HOA with Stone Temple Consulting’s Eric Enge and Mark Traphagen, where host, Todd Hartley interviewed  them live from the MozCon Conference in Seattle.  

The interviewed focussed on Mark's presentation but also included insights into the evolution of SE) and Marketing in general.

I included a time stamp summary in my new blog post which I include here as the interview not only includes great tips on how to build your Brand on G+, but on how to do SEO and Marketing in general
...And yes, if you're in business, you're doing SEO and Marketing.

The Google+ specific strategies start at the 11:30 mark.

2:15 – Importance of Local; local marketing & search; Lessons you learn in a small town. 

3:05 - Why is social so important to your marketing strategy? Opportunity to engage with people in your industry, amplification of your content, potential customers, data availability, expanding your audience. 

4:40 – Holistic approach to marketing: “You really need to understand the end consumer’s experience with the website that you’re trying to bring traffic to.” – Eric 

6:30 - Importance of nurturing, promoting and encouraging creative people in your business. 

8:00 - Create content that resonates with people. Make an emotional connection with your content consumer. 

9:50 – Have the courage to tell the client what they need: paying customers, things that deliver real business to you. Higher rankings don’t necessarily translate into higher revenues. 

11:30 - Google+ strategy – Answer to number one complaint about G+ – “Nobody’s there!”

Incentivize an audience to come into Google+ and give them a reason to associate with you there. By engaging with them, you increase your Brand’s authority by sending direct signals to Google that you matter. 

Where does “Brand Authority” come from? -

13:55 - That authority is built from internal relationships: who engages with you by plussing, commenting and sharing. (True for Profiles & Pages).

Externally, Google treats a Profile or a Page as a webpage so links going back to your profile and page (through Authorship) helps build that authority. All those people who engage with your brand and all those people in their networks are apt to see your brand show up in their Personalized Google searches. 

Impact of personalized search on SERP ranking. 

18:55 – How to bring your audience into Google+. Share a post on an activity that happened on Google+ such as a HOA.

Do HOA with experts that your target audience will be interested in. Publicize them everywhere, Twitter, Facebook etc. Have a CTA such as inviting them to a Google+ community where they can interact with that expert.

Engagement then is built around your brand. Invite large organization to hold live events on Google+. Leverage OPA (Other People’s Audience.) 

26:50 – “Seven impressions to a sale.”

Interactions on social media will have to happen several times plus exposure elsewhere, recommendations, etc.

Social not for converting customers; people you engage with aren’t customers, they’re your ambassadors.

“People do business with people they have relationships with.”

Tips for getting reviews that will boost your local search rankings

One of the take-aways for the MozCon Conference mentioned by Mark and Eric, is "everything is local". With the continued importance of Mobile, it will increasingly be so.

Luis Galarza  offers many tips, stats and resources to: Get the Reviews that will Improve Your Local Search Rankings.

Reviews whether they are on the business website, Google+ or within the company’s social sphere should always be earned and most of all voluntary.

Tips

1. Put a sign up on a visible area in your business that tells your customers where they can find you and provide their feedback. Here is a Flickr page with some Yelp Signs you can use right away.

2. Give them an example of reviews left by other customers that will make it easy for them to replicate in their own words.

3. Provide a “Handout” that explains step-by-step how to leave their feedback on Google+ Local. Here is a great free and very easy tool by Whitespark that you can use to generate a custom Handout for your company.

4. Showcase your customers reviews from different directories on your website. This is an example of social proof about your business that can help you increase sales, generate better leads and get more reviews.

5. Use the power of mobile to your advantage by having a landing page setup to help you generate reviews every time you get a happy customer. The process is simple, have a card with a QR code that points to the landing page, when the customer agrees to leave a feedback ask them to scan the QR code and then follow the instructions on the page. A simple landing page should have a link to different reviews sites, this way the consumer can choose their favourite platform.

6. Make “asking for reviews” part of your daily interaction with your customers. This way it will turn into a positive company behaviour.

7. Research your competition and pay close attention on what platform they get the most customer feedbacks. And then make sure to claim and set up a good company profile on that directory or website.

8.  Ask your customers for suggestions on how to make your service, product or company better, and to write it together with their reviews. This way will give their feedback more content  power and you also get to learn what they want you to improve or fix to provide a better customer experience.

Bonus Tip:

To provide customers with a direct link to ‘Write a Review’, add this code ?review=1 at the end of the Google Local Page URL.  This will bring visitors to the review landing page inside Google+.

Google+ Removes Real Name Restrictions

Last week Google removed restrictions on the use of real names. Like other big changes happening lately, this caused another crap storm of posts and comments.

My unscientific analysis is that for people on Google+ already, the change wasn't welcome (to put it mildly) while those writing posts on the outside cried it was about time.

Important tips for Google+ profile names:

When you create or change your Google+ profile name, please keep these in mind:

• First and last name recommended: You need to add both a first and last name to your Google+ profile. Tip: You can use an initial for one of the names on your profile, but not both. For example, “Larry P.” but not “L.P.”

• Limited number of name changes: After you’ve created or edited your name, you may need to wait up to three months to change it again. It will depend on how recently you created your profile, and when you last changed your name.

• Nicknames optional: You can include a nickname along with your first and last name. For example, John "Moose" Davis or John Davis (Moose).

• No impersonation: Pretending to be someone else could cause your profile to be suspended.

Joshua Berg adds a warning::

"Know that if you give up your custom user ID, you won't get it back & it will probably later become available to someone else."

Inside tip:

"If Google first offers you a custom user ID requiring a suffix (number, etc.), you do not have to accept it. If the same profile continues building authority & popularity, they will later be offered the original name as long as it is available."

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Thanks for sharing your time with me.
Have a wonderful weekend.

Ray