Google+ One Year Later: Best Practices for Brands by Performics

Google+ (Revisted)A Year After Launch 1

G+ Lift-Off 2

G+ Launched to Much Fanfare in June 2011 3

Google Made a Number of Acquisitions to Bolster G+ Oct. 2011 Nov. 2011 March 2012 June 2012Social Media Analytics Automatic Friend-Sorter Mobile Development Lab Social Media Platform $15M $100M 4

G+ Business Pages Launched in Nov. 2011 Since launch, brands like H&M have gained 1M+ followers 5

G+ Users & BrandsWere Off to theRaces G+ continued to rapidly grow By April 2012, Google reported 170M G+ users 6

Google’s Recent G+ Focus 7

Google Is Deeply Integrating G+ Into All Its Services 8

G+ Search Integration: Search Plus Your World (Jan.2012) People & Pages: The SERP prominently features G+ Pages of both people & brands Personal Results: When logged in, the SERP shows the searcher’s personal G+ content, including content from G+ friends 9

G+ Search Prominence*Screenshot taken in Jan. 2012 10

AdWords Integration: Social Endorsements Advertisers can link their G+ Page to their AdWords ads so that Google can show +1 endorsements 11

Local Integration: Google+ Local (June 2012) Business listings that appear in the organic SERP’s Google Maps packs now funnel searchers to the G+ Local page instead of the Google Places page By placing the local channel exclusively within G+, Google will inevitably drive more G+ traffic & awareness Map links to business’ G+ page G+ page shows below the map Latest G+ post displays on the SERP 12

YouTube Integration G+ users can share YouTube videos & playlists in their G+ Streams 13

Google is All In With G+ (June 2012) Google Senior VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra told The Verge: – “Google+ is at its heart about building one seamless experience” – Google’s services dont have an “engagement problem” – Google product teams have come together to tightly integrate G+ 14

What’s a Brand to Do? 15

Because G+ is already deeply integrated in search(especially local) it should be in all brands’performance marketing toolkits . . . 16

Capitalize on G+’s Search Visibility  Create a G+ Business Page! – Claim your vanity URL once Google open it up to all brands – Get your account verified  This will increase the likelihood that you’ll achieve “free” SERP visibility, at least for brand terms 17

Dominate the SERP with 3 Targeted Messages forBrand Terms: 1. Paid Ad: Promoting 70% off summer sale with sitelinks 2. Organic Listing: Evergreen messaging around the site’s positioning 3. Google+ Listing: Real-time Google+ posting promoting a slipper sale 18

G+ Local Best Practices  Ensure that your Place pages have been claimed  Align location-level URLs to these Place pages so that qualified traffic will click through to the appropriate local page with the intended content  Be cognizant of social activity happening at the location-level, including reviews and photo uploads from the G+ community  Continue to manage, update and keep local listings fresh and accurate 19

Encourage Participation!  When a searcher sees that other searchers—particularly their friends—have +1’d a result, that result is perceived as more relevant and will get more clicks – +1s increase CTRs 5–10% on avg. (Google)  The more people who +1 your brand or content, the more likely searchers will see G+-enhanced results. Advertisers should: – Create likable, sharable G+ content – Put the +1 Button on all content – Focus attention on influencers who are likely to spread content – Create two-way conversations, not one-way content blasts 20

Marry Social & Search  Because your G+ content will show on the SERP, anything you do on G+ must be consistent with your overall search strategy – What is your message? – Where are the keyword opportunities?  G+ is helping paid, owned & earned channels become more deeply connected 21

Thanks!Performics.comBlog.Performics.com@PerformicsSlideshare.net/Performics_US 22

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Google+ One Year Later: Best Practices for Brands by Performics

by Performics on Aug 29, 2012

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