Google_ for Business_ How Google's Social Network Changes Everything - Chris Brogan [72]
In this case, the profile can become the static ad for your company on one level. But don’t forget to leave in the personal information to draw people to want to get to know you when they’re not in the market for a lobster. Talk about your family, your hobbies, or where you live and what you’re into besides fishing for lobsters. Make your profile personable but also useful to your business at the same time.
Taking Full Advantage of Google+ to Help Your Business
When it comes to search, realize that Google+ enables you to post photos, video, text, links, and location data. All these post types enable a prospective buyer to learn more about you, and when you post this information to your public stream, you’re giving Google permission to index and crawl that information and thus help others find it outside of Google+. You can post location data to your restaurants, one post after the other, until it’s clear where you’re located. Throw in a picture or a text post of the week’s specials, and you have something that might be useful to people.
The caution is that you don’t want to look like a steady stream of advertisements, especially not on your primary personal account. It’s asking to be uncircled. However, if you can take that kind of interesting information that’s useful for search and turn it into stories that draw people’s attention, you have something. Like the lobster company example, the idea is to make news and stories out of your business. Also, don’t forget about the effectiveness of video testimonials about your business with clients. This doesn’t have to be award-winning material. Just shoot less than two minutes of you asking a customer a few questions using a camcorder and post it to YouTube. Post it to Google+ with some information, being clear to add in information that is search-worthy, and you have another opportunity to help people inside and outside of Google+ to find your business and start a relationship.
Always think about ways you can make a story out of business. Do you have the most amazing banjo-playing woman in the packing department? Then shoot a video of her great work and post it up, explaining how cool the people who deliver your products are. Do you have a CEO who runs off to play rugby with the Irish Fireman’s League? (The CEO of the company I used to work for does this, and I thought he was crazy!) Post photos from his recent match, and point out that your CEO can kick other companies’ CEOs’ butts. (Why not?)
Make stories out of your customers. If someone uses your product and gets great results, make him the hero. Ask for a photo. Ask for a quick video. (A photo is probably a bit more likely.) Write the story with more information geared toward the customer and less about you. Don’t make the story look like this: “Were it not for her smart decision to use the Greppo 3100, Janie Stamper would be homeless!” Instead, make it like this: “Janie Stamper is the best apple carver in all of Ohio, maybe the WORLD! She can get amazing results out of her Greppo 3100 and is the envy of church bazaars everywhere!” The difference, quite subtly, is that the story is about how amazing Janie is, and not how your tool is what makes her carve apples better than the other apple carvers. You with me?
Stay Organic
Above all else, don’t worry about mechanical means to try to boost your search results on Google+. Don’t look into paying people who offer to improve your ranking or who offer to get you more followers. Remember: It’s not how many people who circle you that matters, nearly as much as it’s about the quality of the person who circles you. Besides, there are many ways to get in trouble with search ranking when you consider using inorganic means to get there. Why risk doing something that causes Google to remove any result relevancy to your sites or posts?
Tell great stories. Write interesting posts that get influential people to consider circling