• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

In the next chapter, we talk about what to post, how to post, when to post, and more. It will all tie together as we go along. You’ll see.

6. Posting in the Stream

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After setting up your profile and deciding who to follow and how to organize your circles, what becomes the lion’s share of what you do on Google+ is most likely a blend of reading other people’s posts, sharing and commenting on those posts, and creating your own posts. Sure, you might also do your share of hangouts (live video chatting), but for the most part, consuming, connecting via comments, and then creating new content of interest are the bread and butter of what you’ll do.

There are personal ways to post and business-minded ways to post. From the outset, you need to think about and create material from both perspectives because people who choose to follow you as a representative of your company also need to connect with the human side of you. People connect with people. Even if you represent Pepsi, and you want to be the “voice” of Pepsi, people want to know about you.

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This chapter talks about various ways to post information, including sharing other people’s posts and commenting on posts, but mostly how to create and build business value with your own creative information. Also covered is video, photos, text, links, and more, and this chapter discusses how each post might be best used to build relationships with your prospective buyers and the community at large. However, first, start with a position and perspective that makes a specific strategic point.

Google+ Isn’t a Blog, and It’s More Than Twitter

In the early days of Google+, some people immediately announced that they were scrapping their primary web presence and using Google+ as their main blog/communications platform. While I understood their perspective (more interaction with more people potentially visiting more often), I felt that it was a bad choice. To me, the difference between your primary website or blog and something like Google+ is the same as the difference between a home and a hotel room.

Even if you put down an oriental rug and bring in a few lamps and some Van Halen posters for the walls, if it’s not your own home, it’s still a hotel room. There might be more people visiting Google+ than your blog in the aggregate, but that doesn’t mean they’re sticking around, and it doesn’t mean they’re getting the same interaction on Google+ as they can get on your primary website or blog.

Building anything on another company’s platform is giving it the equity and taking away a lot of your potential capabilities. Google+ doesn’t enable you to choose themes. It doesn’t enable you to embed other technologies (unless already integrated by Google). Google+ doesn’t make it easy for you to convert people from being a visitor to a prospect (such as inviting people to opt into your email newsletter). You need to consider countless more reasons. Suffice to say that I’m opposed to the idea of throwing away your main website and living primarily on Google+.

I’ve taken this same strategy/perspective a bunch of times, but it bears repeating. If your main website or blog is your “home base,” Google+ is an outpost. As such, it’s a place to connect, communicate, listen, and interact with people. This is actually where you’ll spend a lot of your time because people frequent the outposts much more often than they visit your home base.

Your main site is where your primary transactional wish occurs. For instance, if you’re a car dealership, perhaps your goal is to encourage people to come in for a test drive. Most dealerships do this by attempting to convert the web browsing prospect into someone who calls a salesperson or who fills out a contact form.

By contrast, people on Google+ might not be looking for a car, and if you’re Aaron Manley Smith, owner of Motorphilia, a virtual car dealership (and the guy who sold me my 2010 Chevy Camaro SS), you’re listening and building relationships on Google+ so that, when the time comes, people will