Google+ Marketing For Dummies

by Jesse Stay

Overview

Learn how to increase brand awareness and reach customers through all Google properties!

Google+ is a unique social network; in fact, it may not be a social network at all. But however you label it, Google+ can give your brand a tremendous advantage, and this friendly guide shows you how to get in on the action. Learn just what Google+ is (and isn't) and how to connect with new and existing customers throughout the Google community!

• Meet Google+ — see what it offers marketers and test-drive its tools
• Jump in — set up your profile, learn Google+ etiquette, and find people to circle
• Develop your strategy — target your audience with SEO, create your page and target it with Circles, and build a search strategy
• Start hanging out — start a Hangout to video-chat with customers, have a focus group, or share ideas
• Add ads — create effective Google social ads that engage visitors and drive traffic to your page
• It's all about relationships — learn how to use Google+ for CRM and integrate your existing CRM strategy into Google Apps
• Know the score — measure Google+ activity with Google Analytics and test your Google+ ad campaign
• The app side — evaluate whether your brand would benefit from a custom Google+ app

Open the book and find:

• What your profile should (and shouldn't) include
• Innovative ways to use Hangouts
• Secrets of building relationships
• How Google+ works with your existing social media strategy
• Suggestions for a strong Google+ ad campaign
• Ways to maximize the +1 button
• Tips on growing your audience
• Good Google+ business practices

Learn to:

• Create your account and set up your brand profile
• Use Circles, craft targeted messages, and build relationships with Hangouts
• Discover content and the value of the +1 button
• Launch a product or promote an event with Google+

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118381434
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	10/26/2012
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Jesse Stay is a social media technologist, consultant, and developer. Entrepreneur Magazine and Mashable have listed him among the 10 entrepreneurs and 20 developers to follow on Twitter. Jesse is the author of Facebook Application Development For Dummies and Google+ For Dummies, Portable Edition.

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book 2

Conventions Used in This Book 3

Foolish Assumptions 3

How This Book is Organized 4

Part I: Seeing How Google+ Benefits Marketers 4

Part II: Fishing Where the Fish Are 4

Part III: Going from Fisher to Fish-Farmer 4

Part IV: Taking Google+ Further 4

Part V: The Part of Tens 5

Icons Used in This Book 5

Where to Go From Here 5

Part I Seeing How Google+ Benefits Marketers 7

Chapter 1 A Marketer's Overview 9

Appreciating the Typical Google+ Audience 10

Becoming a Member of the Google+ Community 11

Discovering Google+ Tools 13

User profiles 14

Circles 15

Google+ Pages 16

Google+ Events 17

Google+ Hangouts 18

Search 19

Photos (and videos) 20

Games 21

Building Social on Top of Google 21

Seeing people as the new SEO 21

Making Google+ a path, not a destination 21

Knowing when to post on which network 22

Getting and Measuring Solid Results 23

Chapter 2 Getting Started with Google+ 25

Accounting You In 25

Setting up your profile 26

You don't have a Google account 26

You have a Google account but haven't joined Google+ 30

Going Around in Circles and Privacy 31

Finding people to circle 32

Targeting your updates 37

Navigating the Interface 40

Accessing the news feed 40

Organizing your circles 40

Adjusting your volume 42

Playing Nice: Basic Etiquette 43

Seeing how notifications work 43

Avoiding spam 44

Dealing with trolls 44

Chapter 3 Discovering the "Plus" in Google+ 47

Optimizing Your Profile 47

Adjusting your profile for search 48

Setting your privacy settings 51

Building Your Network 53

Optimizing Your Content Around People 54

Getting into Google+ Pages 56

Finding Google+ Pages 57

Adding Google+ Pages to circles 58

Hanging Out 59

Joining a Hangout 59

Starting a Hangout 61

Exploring Google+ Search 62

Finding people 62

Finding content 63

Participating in the conversation 65

Chapter 4 Embracing the "Google" in Google+ 67

Exploring the Google Bar 67

Posting Outside of plus.google.com 69

Integrating with Google Products 72

Exploring Google+'s relationship with search 74

Building relationships via Contacts and Gmail 75

Improving employee collaboration with Google Apps 77

Pairing YouTube and Google+ 79

Playing with advertising 79

Part II Fishing Where the Fish Are 83

Chapter 5 Outlining Your Strategy and Your Audience 85

Strategizing for Social Media 85

Adding Google+ to Your Social Media Strategy 86

Looking it smack in the Facebook 87

Flying in the face of Twitter 91

Digging into Your Google+ Toolbox 94

Social media management systems 95

Social media analytics solutions 96

Luring Your Existing Audience to Google 99

Targeting your audience through SEO 99

Cross-promoting from outside channels 100

Chapter 6 Building Your Google+ Page Presence and Profile 103

Building It So They Will Come 103

Setting up your page 105

Getting to your page 109

Playing with Layout 111

Posting to your page 113

Choosing a design 115

Managing the settings 117

Getting People into Your Page 119

Adding people and pages to circles 120

Targeting posts to individuals, circles, and e-mail addresses 122

Building your audience with other tools 122

Chapter 7 Building a Search Strategy 125

Showing How Google+ Can Affect Google Search 125

Reaping the effect of engagement 129

Harnessing the power of +1 134

Google Search Plus Your World 137

Optimizing your profile for search 140

Optimizing your posts for search 140

Formatting your website for Google Search Plus Your World 142

Chapter 8 Focusing on Real People and Relationships 145

Winning Friends and Influencing Profiles 145

Caring genuinely about people 146

Showing interest in people 149

Seizing Opportunity 149

Searching for service 149

Finding your hidden talent 151

Opening the Covers 152

Promoting your company from within 152

Becoming the news 154

Chapter 9 Utilizing Hangouts to Share Your Brand 157

Exploring Google+ Hangouts 157

Starting your first Google+ Hangout 159

Looking deeper into the value of Hangouts 161

Getting to know your customers 163

Building a Marketing Strategy for Hangouts 165

Educating others - the panel 166

Meeting others - participatory Hangouts 167

Broadcasting to your audience - performing live Hangouts 169

Learning Hangouts Through Tips and Examples 172

Broadcasting a Black Eyed Peas concert 172

Enlightening through the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu 173

Meeting fans with Hangouts 174

Building a nation with President Obama 176

Making things with Make.com 177

Chocolate tasting with your customers 178

Part III Going from Fisher to Fish-Farmer 181

Chapter 10 Advertising with Social Ads 183

Looking to Google Social Ads 184

Creating Google social ads 186

Linking your Google+ Page to your ads 188

Linking your Google+ Page to your website 189

Linking between your Google+ Page and your website 193

Creating an Effective Google+ Ad Campaign Strategy 195

Using ads to engage your viewers 195

Thinking socially with ads 196

Chapter 11 Building Relationships Through Google CRM 199

Seeing Google+ As a Giant CRM Tool 199

Building and tracking relationships through Google+, Google Contacts, and Gmail 200

Learning the different pieces of Google+ CRM 201

Working with Google Contacts - adding, editing, and merging your contacts 210

Integrating Your CRM Strategy into Google Apps Using Google+ 214

Using Google+ for Google Apps Effectively 215

Turning virtual connections into real-life events 215

Turning internal conversations into external sales 217

Chapter 12 Building Website Authority 219

Bringing Identity to Your Website Through Google+ 219

Using your Google+ Page to identify your website 221

Using your website to identify your Google+ Page 222

Building Authority Along with Identity 226

Using brand identity on your website 226

Identifying associated Google+ profiles and pages through your website 227

Bringing Attention to Your Search Results 228

Using author tags to bring out your employees 229

Using page Badges to grow your audience 233

Using Webmaster Tools for optimization 233

Testing your microdata with the Rich Snippets Testing Tool 235

Increasing page ranking through social SEO 237

Part IV Taking Google+ Further 239

Chapter 13 Measuring Google+ Activity 241

Using Google Analytics to Measure Google+ Activity 241

Figuring out traffic from social signals 242

Tracking + 1s 246

Studying conversions 247

Getting notified 249

Listening to your audience 251

Learning the Effect of Your Posts 252

Understanding ripples 252

Measuring manually 255

Chapter 14 Building Apps on Google+ 257

Thinking Socially - Integrating Social Design into Your Website or App 257

Designing around social interaction 258

Bringing the conversation to your site 259

Using Google+ Features to Build Your Site or App 262

Retrieving people and connections 264

Publishing and sharing to Google+ 266

Building branded layers on top of Google+ Hangouts 267

Part V The Part of Tens 269

Chapter 15 Ten Ways to Add Value to Your Website Using Google+ 271

Integrating +1 Buttons 271

Adding Share Buttons 272

Implementing a Google+ Page Badge 273

Adding Author Tags 275

Linking Your Website to Your Google+ Page 275

Optimizing for Search 276

Building Around People 276

Designing Around Social Connections 277

Launching Hangouts 278

Tracking Growth with Google Analytics 278

Chapter 16 Ten Good Google+ Business Practices 281

Separating Fans into Audiences (+Intel) 281

Allowing People to Taste Your Brand (+Cadbury UK) 283

Hanging Out with Your Fans (+Kaskade) 284

Getting to Know Your Customers (+Michael Dell and +Dell) 285

Performing for Fans (Black Eyed Peas and +Will.i.am) 286

Discovering Planets (+Venus Transit) 286

Learning Together (+Scott Jarvie) 287

Engaging Community (+Chris Pirillo) 288

Getting to Know Fans (+Jeri Ryan) 289

Embracing Google+ (+H&M) 290

Chapter 17 Ten Rules for Small-Business Success with Google+ 293

Business Starts with People! 293

Google+ Pages - Your Secret Weapon in Search 294

Give Your Website Authority 295

People Are the New SEO 295

Developers! Developers! Developers! 296

Bring Home the Bacon 297

"Hang out" with Customers 298

Know Your Audience 299

Build Your Audience 300

Sell! Sell! Sell! 301

Index 303