It’s important to understand that not all social media platforms are created equal – even before its launch Google+ has been subject to endless comparisons with Facebook and, whilst this is understandable, as Google+ reveals more of itself the relative advantages and applications of each platform are becoming clear.  Every platform has its own benefits and is suited towards different purposes even if they try to look like they can do everything!

Think first, act later:  Evaluate your needs and your goals, then decide on a suitable social media outreach.  If you’re already using social media, question why you want to be on another platform and whether the investment of time and energy will yield results.  Poorly developed social media sites that are barely maintained can actually damage your brand – it reeks of disinterest, lack of commitment and an inability to keep up.  When a business has a ghost-like presence on every social media platform – the spirit is there, but no substance – the most obvious question is why they bothered in the first place.

The Circle of (Business) Life:  I’ll admit, at first the circles baffled me a little.  I really only use Facebook for personal use and haven’t needed the Groups feature, which many say is terribly complicated and cumbersome anyway.  But it’s becoming clear that when it comes to Google+ for business, Circles are make-or-break.  If you have a ‘Prospects’ circle and direct all your relevant material there, you aren’t bombarding your ‘Clients’ – relegated to their own circle – with information they already know (like how awesome your company is and all the reasons they should do business with you)

A big draw for many is the ability to more easily integrate your personal and professional social media in one platform, whilst easily keeping personal stuff away from your work world.  For example, a good friend who is also a colleague can ‘move’ in those two circles, whilst a friend who works for a business that could be a potential client can be added to the “Prospects” circle as well, helping you reach their relevant circles.

Search and Destroy:  Easily the most important aspect of Google+ is how it influences Google search analytics.  Typically, Google refuses to disclose or even discuss in detail how Google+ will affect the mysterious (and, we assume, all powerful) Google Search Algorithm, though they have revealed that Google+ data will somehow feed into Google Search and will also be linked with Google Places and Youtube.  Beyond the obvious marketing applications, it is widely believed that interaction others have with your brand via it’s Google+ page, and the interaction your brand has with others, will be able to increase your standing in Google search results.  In this great article, Chris Brogan discusses how important this will be for brands in the future as Google+ gains momentum.

Rules of Engagement: There are two big ones here: number one, don’t treat Google+ like a social media marketing platform, treat it as a business communication tool.  Google heavily discourages blatant promotion on Google+ and is trying to cultivate and maintain a level of professionalism that has never been there with Facebook, which has promotion pages and competitions running every which way and tacky side bar ads lending a decidedly low-brow tone to anything marketed on the site.  Let’s face it; it’s hard to look professional when your content is posted next to ads for sparkly hair extensions.

If you use Google+ well, you won’t need to try and actively market through it.  So many companies have had massive failures on the back of Facebook campaigns because they figured it would be easy to set up a page and their campaign would naturally roll out from there.  Wrong.  Enter rule two: reciprocity.

Don’t just put things out there and sit back waiting for users to engage themselves with your brand.  If you’re not having any luck getting interest and interaction for your page, go interact with others.  And don’t start by pushing your brand onto their pages either – people can get very territorial when it comes to strangers treading their online ground.  If a company or individual posts something that is relevant to your brand, comment and give feedback.  Keep it simple.  The same way you’d respond to someone commenting on your page, others will be eager to acknowledge your input and will likely respond.  A good friend of mine used to post something to Facebook and he would get over 100 responses every time.  One day I asked him why and he said it was simply because he gave attention to everyone else and they responded in turn.  They got to know him online even if they’d only met briefly in person and the engagement rose with his familiarity.

Just treat Google+ like any other business interaction – ask for feedback, comments and suggestions.  If you post about a new campaign, ask what your relevant circles think.  Get a discussion going.  If you find something relevant to someone in your circles, share it with them.  If a contact posts about needing help with a website feature and you know someone who can help, offer to introduce them.  And follow up; whether your post gets 1 comment or 100, let people know they’re being heard.

Finally, DON’T RUSH!! It takes time, so give it time.  Genuine, sustained engagement and relationships are so much more valuable than a fleeting infatuation from someone who will move on when something brighter and shinier catches their online eye.

Emedia would love to get to know you better on Google+.  Find our page “Emedia Australia“

This short guide covers the basics in a few easy-to-digest pages; including Web 2.0, Facebook, Twitter and using social media to start conversations and gain trust with your customers .

Click here to download the guide in PDF >>>

While the web is jam-packed full of white papers, guides, articles and blog posts explaining how to go social, how to get more ‘likes’ on Facebook and how to avoid making a Twitter faux-pas, you’ll find far less that actually tackle the question of why you should bother doing this.

In a recent post, How Mark Zuckerberg Stole Your Search Traffic, Brian Massey makes the case that, by encouraging hard-won visitors to check out your Facebook or Twitter page rather than keeping them on your website, you are actively turning away potential customers- he’s not wrong.

The underlying rule here is- don’t do social media just because everyone else is. To know why you want 1000 followers on Twitter or why you want fans to have conversations on your Facebook page is to set expectations of what you want to achieve, which will prevent you from making basic mistakes.

Another rule is to never use email to drive readers to a social network page. Getting someone to open and read an email isn’t easy nowadays, so why would you waste an opportunity to keep them concentrating on you by sending them to a social network where they can become distracted by personal messages and click away from you and your brand for good? Instead, use social media to encourage readers to your website or to sign-up to your newsletters where you’re more likely to hold their interest in the long-term.

If you’re keen to encourage readers to visit your social network pages, try to hold-off doing so until after they’ve subscribed or after they’ve become a customer- or, as Brian mentions, add buttons which enable readers to comment or re-tweet without leaving your email or website.

It’s always important to bear in mind that the followers on your social media pages are very different to your email subscribers- the main reason being that their levels of interest in what you do, as well as their motivations, are different. Whereas someone who has responded to or taken the time to sign-up to your email list is clearly very interested in what you have to say, social media followers are likely to be far less focused on you and could be receiving tweets and updates from hundreds of other companies. For this reason, the sort of communication you’ll be able to have with your email followers will be far more closely related to what you do, whereas social media is better used for more conceptual, wider-reaching issues which will encourage debate and keep audiences engaged.

Ultimately, the ‘Big Question’ (how to make money out of your social media followers) remains unanswered; whereas email has proved it can generate revenue and keep an audience of potential customers engaged time and time again. The golden rule of marketing is to avoid putting your eggs in one basket and email marketing and social media aren’t mutually exclusive… however, it’s important to remember the limitations of both and to use them in the way they were designed to be used. Remember- once someone has subscribed to receive your emails, you control your communications with them and your list belong to you; it doesn’t matter how many Facebook followers you have- you don’t own them, Facebook does.