The Importance of Google+ for Small Businesses

Are you going gaga for Google+? Google+ can be intimidating at first but it has very important uses for business. Therefore it is important to learn.

Google is an amazing company and their Google+ platform is taking off tremendously. It’s not just another social media site and it’s true Facebook has a lot more activity however Google+ should not to be ignored. Especially if you have a small business!

When you have a small business to run, it’s imperative to get your business out there in the social media realm.

Let’s start with HOW it works:

Go to Google – create a Google+ profile, you’ll find it at the top right corner. Once created, click +(Your Name).

It’s that simple. When you use Google+, you’ll find step-by-step instructions on how to create Circles (people you know or follow), creating your Tagline, and your Bragging Rights. Make sure your profile is completely filled in with your location, education, and work.

Okay now that you have that set-up. On the left side, you’ll see a button that says Home as you can see below:

Click on the Home Button and you have a drop-down menu.
Click on Pages, this is where you’ll be prompted to create a business or personal page.

When you create a business page, it will ask what kind of industry and if you want to list local.

For any small businesses that don’t have their website together yet and you have a business that people need to come to you, the first option would be best (Local Business or Place). This will list you in Google search depending on location to the searcher. Let’s face it, when you are in need of a service what do you do? You look it up online. If it’s a small business that doesn’t have a website how else will you find them. For example, I’m looking for a towing service. See what comes up in my search below.

Now I know there are a lot more services near my home but they don’t show up. Businesses who’ve taken the time to set up Google+ location will be listed in the map marked in alpha order. I highlighted the first 3 and those are not even close to where I live BUT those are the businesses that took the time to place themselves on the Google map. Let’s look at the example below of a business that took a bit of time to set up Google+ page.

Guess what no website BUT they have a Google+ page where you can see the location on the map, address, phone number, hours of business, and REVIEWS. That means you can have customers put in their reviews for others to see on how much they love your business! Word of mouth referrals are the BEST.

So… I just want to make it clear if you don’t have a website then at least do a Google+ page. Get on the map! You’re losing business not doing this.

Having a Google+ page doesn’t stop there. Oh no!

There are Communities you can join depending on your interests and you can network with people and businesses just like yours.
Add people to your Circles – Circles are categorized sections of people you know that are on Google+ too. You can have Circles for family, acquaintances, people you “follow” (that means you’re interested in what they have to say so you follow them to get notifications when they post something on their page).
Posts – Post something interesting with a photo to share publicly. If someone likes it they’ll click on the little +1 button.
Create events – Why not invite some people to your Grand Opening? For example, if you live in Greece, you could’ve went to the European Music Day shown below. How cool is that? Sorry I missed it but it looks like 15 people enjoyed it.

Plan a Hangout – Once you have a good amount of people in your Circles this is good to use to chat with them and see them. Maybe you have a new product you want to talk about and get their feedback. Check out Hubble Space Telescope, they’re doing Hangouts once a month.