AN INTRODUCTION

TO GOOGLE+ FOR
BUSINESS.
A Setup & Strategy Guide for Marketers

A publication of

an introduction to google+ for business

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Not quite sure if this ebook is right for you? See the below description to determine if
your level matches the content you are about to read.

INTRODUCTORY

THIS RESOURCE

Introductory content is for marketers who are new to the subject. This content
typically includes step-by-step instructions on how to get started with this aspect of
inbound marketing and learn its fundamentals. After reading it, you will be able to
execute basic marketing tactics related to the topic.

INTERMEDIATE
Intermediate content is for marketers who are familiar with the subject but have
only basic experience in executing strategies and tactics on the topic. This content
typically covers the fundamentals and moves on to reveal more complex functions
and examples. After reading it, you will feel comfortable leading projects with this
aspect of inbound marketing.

ADVANCED
Advanced content is for marketers who are, or want to be, experts on the subject.
In it, we walk you through advanced features of this aspect of inbound marketing
and help you develop complete mastery of the subject. After reading it, you will feel
ready not only to execute strategies and tactics, but also to teach others how to be
successful.

an introduction to google+ for business

an introduction to google+
for business.
Jay Acunzo leads content strategy
and production at HubSpot, where he
oversees the team of writers behind
the companys award-winning blog
and 300+ ebooks and guides. Jay
previously worked at Google on the
Google+ and AdWords teams and
has helped build the content strategy
Written By Jay acunzo

Follow me on twitter.
@JAY_ZO

behind several Boston startups.

An overly-proud Italian, Jays been
known to cook up a mean marinara.

Anum Hussain is an Inbound Content

Strategist at HubSpot, where she
manages content plans for various
company goals. She strategizes
which content types, formats, and
ideas should be implemented for
each content plan, and then works
on the execution and analysis of
Written By ANUM HUSSAIN

Follow me on twitter.
@ANUM

each. Anum was recognized in B2B

Marketing Magazine as one of ten
2013 Rising Stars.

an introduction to google+ for business

CONTENTS.
05

Introduction

06

How to Set Up Your Google+ Page

12

5 Quick Tips for Managing Your

Google+ Page

18

How Google Search Gets More

Personal (& More Powerful)

28

Google+ Vocabulary: A Quick

Reference Glossary

32

Conclusion

an introduction to google+ for business

Introduction.

ince its inception 18 months ago, nearly 50% of companies rate

Google+ as important to their business. And just last year 15% of

marketers acquired a customer from this social channel.
But its no wonder why. Google+ has attracted 500 million registered
users, growing into the second largest social network as of January
2013. With its various redesigns, feature add-ons, and integrations with
other Google products, its growing into a hub of marketing value.
When Google+ was first rolled out to businesses in November 2011, its

VP of Product Brad Horowitz told the New York Times, I expect brands
will notice this and will build marketing plans around it. His statement
reinforces the business potential of Googles social network.

This ebook will cover the basics of how to setup and manage your own
Google+ Page. Well shed light on Googles personalization capabilities,
and even provide a brief glossary of all there is to know about Google+.

an introduction to google+ for business

Chapter 1

how to set
up & manage
your google+
business page
I Expect brands will notice this
and will build marketing plans
around it.
Bradley Horowitz, VP of Product, Google

an introduction to google+ for business

5 Steps to Building a Google+

Business Page
Google+ Business Pages allow brands to gracefully interact with a

growing audience, but the benefits extend well beyond plus.google.com.

Unlike Facebook today, Google+ pages and posts can help you reach
people beyond a social network. Its integration with various Google

products and technologies, including Google Search and YouTube, make

it a highly attractive business tool.

With that in mind, heres a visual guide to getting set up on Google+ for
those who have yet to build their presence.

Create a Google+ Page

To create your business page, navigate to www.google.com/+/business

and click the button to the upper right reading, Create a Google+ page.

Google will prompt you to sign in with your email address. Simply sign
in with your personal or work address. Google+ allows you to manage

your page just like a Facebook Page through your own account, with
the ability to add other managers. Well cover how to do so later in this
chapter.

an introduction to google+ for business

Pick a Category

Select the category your business or organization falls under from the

five main options. Clicking on one of the five options will then prompt you
to select a subcategory within your industry.

Selecting the proper category helps Google

understand basic information about your
business. This then helps Google surface the
right content from a business or organization
for various search queries by your potential
customers.

an introduction to google+ for business

Add Basic Information

Next youll need to add the basic information about your business or

organization. This includes your company name, website, and the age
range appropriate to interact with your page.

10

an introduction to google+ for business

Customize Your Public Profile

While basic information will help a user identify your business page,
youll want to include richer detail about your brand. This includes:

Your story, which Google defines as the 10 words that describe

your page best. This is essentially your tagline, displayed as the
description in search for anyone who discovers your page.

Public contact information that will help users reach out to your
business.

Profile image that will appear every time you interact on Google+ with
+1s or comments.

Cover photo that appears boldly as the main entrance to your

an introduction to google+ for business

Share Content and Complete Your Profile

Once youre ready to share content, simply click on the Posts option in
the top navigation of your page.

By clicking the About option in the top navigation, you can edit
your profile to include key information that helps users discover

your page through search, and understand more about your brand.

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an introduction to google+ for business

Chapter 2

5 quick tips
for managing
your google+
business page
We want to help you make the
same kinds of lasting connections
with your customers online the
way you can in real life.
Dennis Troper, Product Management Director, Google+ Pages

an introduction to google+ for business

5 Quick Tips for Managing

Your Google+ Business Page
At the most basic level, the preceding five steps for building your

business page are all you need to do to get your page launched. But as
any smart marketers know, the basics arent typically enough.

Intelligent marketers understand the importance of optimizing their page

to make it not only more engaging but also more valuable and effective
for your fans and customers.

With that in mind, here are five tips for helping you manage your
Google+ Business Page.

Preview Page As Customers Would

To see how your Google+ Page appears to the public, toggle your view

using the View profile as feature in the top navigation of your page. You
can also type in a specific users name to see how your page appears
for that user.

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an introduction to google+ for business

Invite Others to Help Manage Your Page

Invite team members to help manage your Google+ Page. Anyone

who can help answer questions, share content, or monitor should be

welcomed.

For example at HubSpot, in addition to our social media team, members

from our content team are invited to manage the page for when they
need to research and write more content about Google+.

an introduction to google+ for business

Share Content Directly to Communities

Google Communities are an active and engaging place for sharing

content. They work just like LinkedIn Groups. You can share content into

these communities right from your Google+ Page by adding them via the
plus (+) feature in a status update.

While communities are an important and engaging place to share content, be

sure you dont use this feature to spam these communities. Only share what is
truly relevant and beneficial to these communities. Even better, try starting back
and forth discussion. Social is perfect for interacting like you would face-to-face.

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an introduction to google+ for business

Include Hashtags to Make Posts Discoverable

Google+ automatically adds hashtags to posts based on the content

of the update. You can also include your own hashtags (or choose
to remove those added for you) to help bucket your content into

conversations happening in the Google+ space around that same topic.

an introduction to google+ for business

Employ Visuals in Your Content Sharing

Google+ is a highly visual network. Aside from the colossal cover image

on your business page, it allows you to share images of varying formats,

sizes, and styles. The Google+ algorithm then goes to work to present

content in a multi-column design that adapts visual presentation based

on screen size and orientation.

Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering at Google, told

TechCrunch, Were fixing a long-standing problem with these feeds,

theyre flat. Other sites let you scroll through posts that have been

shared with you. You cant go through and read on more topics. You
cant go deeper on an interest on topic.

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an introduction to google+ for business

Chapter 3

How Google
search gets
more personal (&
more powerful)
Links may be the foundation on
which the Internet was built, but
they are not its future. Likes
have become the new links that
drive our connections online.
Edward J. Black, President and CEO of the Computer and Communications
Industry Association

an introduction to google+ for business

Google+ and the Quest for

Relevancy
Vic Gundotra, Google Senior Vice President of Engineering and the

lead on all things social at the company, has long held that Google+ is

not about creating a new social network but about pivoting all of Google
(a giant company with dozens of products) around people. Thats a tall

task, but its all in the name of something us marketers know quite well:
relevancy!

Relevancy starts and ends with having context about the person, place,
object, or situation. Whats relevant to you, after all, is not necessarily
relevant to your colleague. You each have distinct sets of interests,

biases, perspectives, and desires. But without the Google+ features that
tie into search results, Google search was more about the coding of an
algorithm than the nuances of a searcher.

So, how can you make your business and your content appear in more

relevant, human ways to your prospects, leads, and customers? Weve

created this list in order from quickest and easiest to the most involved
and advanced.

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an introduction to google+ for business

5 Ways to Personalize Your

Business with Google+
So, how can you make your business and your content appear in more

relevant, human ways to your prospects, leads, and customers? Weve

created this list in order from quickest and easiest to the most involved.

Open a Google+ Page

This tip might be worthy of an eye roll for two reasons: It requires

opening yet another social media account, and its perhaps the most
obvious statement to make when this entire ebook is about using

Google+. But theres a reason we wrote out the steps for starting a
Google+ Page in this ebook!

Just by opening a Google+ profile, you are claiming more precious

real estate on the Google search result page for your brand name.

And because this is a Google product, the search result is beautifully

optimized to reflect the profile information that, again, you control. Simply
edit your Google+ profile under the Tagline section of the About page,
and you can dictate in two seconds what appears on Google search
results.

an introduction to google+ for business

Set Up Google Authorship

Google Authorship is a must have feature of Google+ for any inbound

marketer, as we discussed back when it rolled in 2011. Since so much

of the success behind inbound involves blogging, think of Authorship as

a way to make Google search results reflect not only your blogs actual
text, but you, the author and marketer.

Authorship, at its core, links your name and byline on your blog to your

Google+ personal profile. When the feature is enabled in your Google+

account, search results relevant to your blog posts will append your
profile photo and name.

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an introduction to google+ for business

There are myriad benefits to setting up Authorship:

Improve clickthrough rates by standing out in the search results with
your thumbnail and byline.

Strengthen awareness of your brand (an alternative to expensive,

tough-to-track branding campaigns like banners or billboards).

Support existing customers and leads while enticing new visitors.

Those who recognize you will immediately gravitate towards

something they know because its more relevant than a faceless

link. Those who do not will appreciate the more human approach to
business in todays consumer-led world.

Establish authority in the industry for certain keywords and topics.

And of course, protect your content. Whether youve established your

expertise or youre putting yourself out there for the first time, the
content will be undeniably yours because its tied to your profile.

To get started on Authorship in a matter of minutes, follow the step-bystep instructions in our blog post here.

an introduction to google+ for business

Add the +1 Button to Your Site

Ah, the +1 button. If youre an avid blog reader, youve likely seen a

+1 button or two sitting along the row of usual suspects next to every

online article. You know the drill: Facebook Likes and tweets each get

lots of action; LinkedIn shares come next; maybe email after that; and,
tucked away on the Island of Misfit Social Toys, the +1 button sits with
StumbleUpon and a few logos you dont quite recognize.

But heres where that all-important idea of context matters again.

Google would love to tell you which articles are popular among all online
users when they serve you a search results page. Theyd love to point
out the absolute best and most popular how-to post whenever you

search for get more blog subscribers on Google. And youd love to find
that article and consume it, since, after all, thats the best of the best.
However, Google wont tell you the total number of shares an article

receives on every social network. It doesnt tell you whats trending on

Twitter under get more blog subscribers, and Lord knows, Google will
never, ever partner with Facebook to tell you how many Likes various
articles receive.

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an introduction to google+ for business

So the +1 button is Google searchs ultimate litmus test for what is

trending among a general audience. In addition to showing you whether

any of your personal Google+ connections +1d an article (if you use

Google+), the results page will flag which articles - regardless of rank have been popular and +1d the most.

This is about showcasing stamps of approval, using humans (not robots)

as the deciding factor. Furthermore, our analysis of over 5,000 websites
revealed that websites using Googles +1 button get 3.5x the Google+
visits.

To add the +1 button to your site, see Googles instructions here. We

recommend sending this to someone who is familiar with the code of

your site. For a more marketer-friendly approach, rely on your current

blogs social sharing app and switch on the +1. You can also use a thirdparty social sharing widget from companies like AddThis, ShareThis, or
Shareaholic.

Websites Using Googles

+1 Button Get 3.5x the
Google+ Visits.
Based on an analysis of 5,000 HubSpot customers.

an introduction to google+ for business

No +1 Button

With +1 Button

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an introduction to google+ for business

Start Posting (Not Spamming) on Google+

Lets tear the band-aid off fast here: Google wants you to post to

Google+. Google is a business and, while they can be a business thats

easy to admire, they ultimately have agendas to push.

But before we start knocking down the doors of the Googleplex (and

demanding free food which is exactly what anyone knocking down

Googles doors SHOULD do, of course), lets take a step back and
understand something beautiful.

Google treats Google+ links just like links to other websites.

We as marketers should all be celebrating this. We control our own

destiny for how we rank on Google that much more. SEO centers on two
main ideas: relevancy and authority. Relevancy can be boiled down to

whether or not your page and content relates to the users search term.
But authority can be tricky. Authority typically means PageRank,

Googles legendary method for understanding which links matter most to

rank near the top. If other sites link often to your page, that page is more
likely to rank well on Google.com results.

Back to Google+ for a second: dont just start posting everything you

create to Google+, as Googles algorithm is much smarter than to count

blatant attempts like this. Instead, Google is giving bonus points (so

to speak) to Google+ profiles that post often, share and connect with

active, influential Google+ profiles, and generally use Google+ as a bona

fide social network.

an introduction to google+ for business

The good news is the principles of sound SEO strategy apply to

Google+, so you wont need to reinvent the wheel necessarily. In other

words, backlinks matter a great deal. On Google+, this means that

providing an audience cause to share and link back to your content can
help elevate your Google+ profile.

Search On
Despite the cries of so many misguided pundits, search is far from

dead. In fact, search has a better pulse on the land of living than it
ever has before. Rather than being run by robots or giant teams of

SEO specialists from big organizations, its run by context, people, and
personalized, powerful results.

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an introduction to google+ for business

Embed Google+ Posts

Google+ allows users to embed content posted to the social network

right onto a website or blog (or any online site really).

According to the Google+ blog, With embedded posts, site owners can
now add your public Google+ posts to their web pages as a primary
source, for example, or to highlight your point of view. Text, photo and

media posts are all supported, and the embeds are fully interactive, so
visitors can +1, comment and follow you inline.

an introduction to google+ for business

Embedding posts is simple, just follow

these steps:

1. Find a public post on Google+.

2. Select Embed post from the
drop-down menu.
3. Copy the code that appears on
the screen.
4. Paste the code into the HTML of
your site.
And voila! You can embed posts
galore. You can see an example of how
this looks on National Geographic to
your right.

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an introduction to google+ for business

Chapter 4

Google+
Vocabulary: A
Quick Reference
Glossary
Dont think of Google+ as yet
another social site to deal with.
Think of it as the only social site
you have to deal with.
Mike Elgan, Founder, Writer, Columnist, and Blogger at Elgan Media

an introduction to google+ for business

Google+ Glossary
Mike Elgan, a writer, columnist, and blogger with over two million
followers on Google+, explains the social network as follows:

Instead of saying, Im going to write a blog post now, or Im going to

send an email or I think Ill tweet something you simply say what you
have to say, then decide who youre going to say it to.
If you address it to Public, its a blog post.

If you address it to Your Circles, its a tweet.

If you address it to your My Customers Circle, its a business newsletter.

If you address it to a single person, it can be a letter to your mother.
Id say this is pretty revolutionary.
With that perspective in mind, lets dive into some of the terms he
references, as well as others, to help you understand the various
features available on Google+

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an introduction to google+ for business

Google+ Key Terms

+1 Button: The equivalent of the Facebook Like button for Google+
and Google Search. A user can +1 an item shared on Google+ as well as a
search engine result link returned by a Google search.

Chat: A method for sending short messages to other Google+ members

who are also signed in to Google+.

Circle: The method of organizing connections into groups for more

targeted sharing and better privacy.

Comment: A response to a users Google+ post.

Community: Environments on Google+ where users can gather and
discuss shared interests (similar to LinkedIn Groups).

Event: Fully customizable Google+ pages for inviting Google+ users and
community members to a particular the event. Google+ automatically adds
these events to attendee Google Calendars.

an introduction to google+ for business

erms & Features

Google+ Page: A digital platform for a business or organization to
share content related to their brand.

Google Profile: Your personal home on Google+, which allows you to

share interesting work experiences, personal information, and much more.

Hangout: A platform for group video chatting and collaboration that

is used by Google+ members, with a max participation allowance of 10
users. Hangouts can also be broadcasted live to a public audience and
automatically recorded to YouTube.

Share: Allows you to share a message that someone else created with
your followers (similar to a retweet on Twitter).

Stream: The list of real-time messages that are displayed on the Google+
home screen and for each Circle of contacts. Google+ streams are
responsive, adapting to the screen size and orientation of browsers.

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an introduction to google+ for business

Conclusion.

hese were the basics. Ultimately, any social media marketing

involves staying up-to-date with the various features released, and it all
comes back to building actual relationships with actual people. Google+
offers another forum to share relevant content and conversation.
Googles version of a social network lets you tap into a community-based
site like LinkedIn with a visual, share-happy angle like Facebook.
Unfortunately for marketers stuck in the past, the internet has become an
increasingly crowded cocktail party of people milling around, distracted,
interacting with friends and brands alike. Theres just no room for a
marketer to be lazy and stand on a soapbox in the corner shouting about
his or her business. You cant simply push content or push agendas into
a place like Google+ and expect any success at all.
But fortunately, you know how to work a room. You understand the
need to add value by sharing helpful content, by asking questions and
responding to them, and by generally being a good person to others you
encounter on social networks.

an introduction to google+ for business

As for Google+ specifically, between a growing community of potential

visitors to your site, a strong tie to SEO on Google.com, and a platform
to publish, share, and interact based on shared interests, its easy to see
more and more marketers developing strategies around this network.
And their success will come not because of the simple presence of a
page, but because theyll know that practicing inbound strategies means
adding value and helping customers find what theyre truly seeking when
buying: a business YOUR business which makes their lives better.
And to that we give a big ol +1!

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an introduction to google+ for business

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