In part one we discussed page optimization and the ins and outs of Google Plus posting; how often you should post and how to construct posts that are engaging. In part two we will look at the various methods you can employ to ensure that your audience rises rapidly with quality contacts who will engage with your posts.
Increasing Your Audience
If you’re the likes of Apple, Sony or Nike and you have a global brand that is already a household name growing your social audience is easy. You just set up an account and post and sit back as your audience rises rapidly. Sadly, for the rest of us who are still trying to get our brand noticed, you’re just going to have to invest more time and effort to grow your G+ audience in to the thousands.
The good news is you know how to craft a
G+ post that will serve as a beacon to other users around the world and once people start to see your posts, the chances are they will connect with you and stay for the long term. And while that’s great, you may find that followers are still pretty hard to come by and that rather than gaining 50 a day, you’re welcoming one or two per day to your online community.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are a few steps you can take to increase your exposure and thus increase your audience a good bit quicker. It’s all about being social. You may have heard the term “In order to be social you’ve got to get social”. Well, what this means if you have to engage with other accounts and this can be done in a variety of ways.
Liking, Resharing and Commenting on Big Accounts
People just love to engage with active engagers. The reason being that very often other users are looking to grow their audience and engage with users who may like, share or comment on their posts. As such, a good strategy is to head to big brands that are within your niche and engage engage engage. If you have a tech page, head for one of the big pages and comment on their posts. Make sure you +1 plenty of posts (without being spammy and going over the top) and do a bit of resharing. Other users will see you engaging and they’ll want to engage with you.
Connecting with Other Accounts
Again, a good place to start is by heading to big brand accounts within your niche. Once there, look at their latest posts and start connecting with users who have +1 their posts. There’s a couple of reasons for doing this. Firstly, accounts who have engaged with a fresh post are sure to be active users and that’s important. G+ has millions of inactive accounts and you don’t want to be connecting with them do you?
G+ users who have reshared or commented are very valuable as they tend to be very enthusiastic users and that is what you want – users who are going to +1 and reshare your posts if they find them interesting.
Engaging with G+ Communities & Posts
Google Plus has plenty of communities covering a wealth of different subjects. The communities can range from a few hundred to 100K and the bigger the better. That said, some may have started out well and then gone by the wayside so do take a look to see if there are plenty of fresh posts before investing time into said community. The great thing about communities is that many tend to be chock full of users who share the same interests.
So, to start posting in communities do the following. Scroll down the left hand side of your account and click on the communities’ icon. Once there go to the search box on the right and enter the relevant keyword and see what options pop up.
Warning – once you’ve applied to join a community you will probably notice a set of community rules. These rules vary but often they will say something along the lines of the following
“If you are using this community please treat it with respect. Do not post your own content daily without taking the time to engage with others. Users who use this community for nothing but self-serving needs without contributing to the discussions will be deleted”
They may not be this word for word but you get the point. If you’re going to use communities it’s all about give and take and not just take.
Once you’ve joined a community how you engage is very important. Posting insightful comments on other member’s posts is an excellent way to attract the attention of other users within your niche. That doesn’t mean commenting with “great post” and “thanks for sharing” on every other post as it’s obvious that you haven’t read the post properly and that you’re just trying to gain exposure.
Take the time to read other users posts and comment with helpful advice, start discussions around posts, ask thought provoking questions and generally show that your presence in the community adds value.
Do this properly and users will start to respect you, they will trust you and they will be far more likely to connect with you and engage with your content.
Everything I have said above regarding communities works the same with posts. If you follow this strategy with posts from other users the likelihood is you’ll reap the same rewards.
It’s all about building trust
Mentions
The ‘mentions’ tab which you’ll find at the top right of the screen is a valuable tab to ensure that you haven’t missed replies from other users.
By clicking on the tab you will be faced with a stream that has all mentions from other users. Perhaps you’ve commented on another user’s post or hit +1. Very often your connections will respond by saying thanks or +1 your comment.
Keeping a regular eye on the mentions tab will ensure that you haven’t missed these responses and will give you an opportunity to continuously engage.
Link Your Brand Page with Your Website.
While you’re just starting out with G+ it may be that you already have a quality website that’s experience a high volumes of traffic. Well, there’s a ready-made audience which is likely to include a percentage of G+ users. As such, it’s a very good idea to make sure that your website and G+ page are linked.
If you don’t know quite how to do this just follow this link to Google
where you’ll get all the help you need.
Once set up the chances are visitors to your website who use Google Plus will be only too happy to connect with you.
Use Other Social Media to Advertise Your G+ Account.
Maybe you have 20K followers on Twitter, or perhaps you’ve spent the last 5 years building a global audience on Facebook. If that’s the case, don’t be afraid to advertise your G+ account. Many social network users enjoy using multiple networks and will be only too happy to join you in the Googlesphere as well.
There was a time when I was very active on Twitter and whenever I posted a link to my G+ account I would notice an immediate rise in connections the same day.
So why not have a go and see what happens.
Google Hangouts On Air
Google HOA can be a great way of increasing exposure and gaining more relevant followers and you should always think of them as a valuable networking opportunity. Comment carefully, not too often and try and say something insightful. Be friendly with other commenters and don’t try and be superior and you will make quality relevant connections who will be engaging with you in no time.
If you haven’t been invited to any HOA give it time. By connecting with big names or users who like to host them it won’t be long before an opportunity arises. Once it does, grab the bull by both horns and work your magic.
Develop Your Own Voice
Be human – if all you do is post and +1 you will seem like nothing more than a bot and that’s a massive turn off. Don’t be afraid to be friendly, or even putting the odd amusing meme up that’s relevant to your niche. It’s important that your individual voice and personality come through even if you are posting on behalf of a business. Users want to feel that they are interacting with a human being not scheduling software.
Use Scheduling Software
Which brings me to my next point:
While you will always want to appear human, scheduling software can be very useful when used properly. Depending on the nature of your business you may be wanting to make new connections from other countries around the world.
What’s more, with the best will in the world you may not always have the time to jump on to G+ and post every day at 5pm.
As such scheduling software such as Hootsuite or Rignite can come in very handy. Not only can you schedule your posts for outside office hours, you can schedule to post when you may be otherwise engaged.
Then you can simply logon when you have the time and respond to comments and thank users who have engaged with you.
You’re good to go!
It looks like you’re good to go. All you have to do now is add us and we’ll be chatting to each other in no time. J
John Waldron
John Waldron is a writer with markITwrite who regularly writes on lifestyle and technology. He has a First-Class Honours Degree in English with Creative Writing and an MA in Professional Writing from University College Falmouth, Cornwall.