The Art of Social Media: Google Plus
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This document discusses using Google+ for social media and design. It provides an agenda for the topics covered, including why businesses should use Google+, how to design an effective social media plan, leveraging key Google+ features, creating engaging content, and building communities. The document provides tips and best practices for using Google+ to connect with potential customers, drive traffic, and achieve social media goals.
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The Art of Social Media: Google Plus
- 1. #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca The Art of Social Media Google+ SOCIAL MEDIA & DESIGN 1
- 2. Agenda • Google+ – Why Should I Care? • Designing A Plan • Leveraging Key Features • Content That Connects • Building Community #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 2
- 3. Search • Find customers who are already looking for what you offer, even if they don’t know you exist • Creating content and/or paying to increase your chance at a first page search ranking • Video… #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 3
- 4. #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 4 • Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YUuzKhj1ZQ
- 5. SEO/SEM • SEO – ways to improve website to increase chances of search bots finding your content • SEM – paying for search ranking through AdWords or even hiring a company like Antenna to help your site rise in the ranks #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 5
- 6. Reach • Word of mouth, amplified • Post at strategic times to reach more people • Post content that is engaging so that it gets shared #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 6
- 7. #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca Google+ Why Should I Care? 7
- 8. Search Power • Simple and sleek interface • Improves SEO • Drives traffic to your website • Establishes credibility #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 8
- 9. What Is It? • Google’s answer to Facebook • An account attached to other Google properties • 2nd largest social networking site in the world after FB • Over 1 Billion Users #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 9
- 10. Connecting • Be personal • Create posts • Share content • +1 #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 10
- 11. Privacy #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 11
- 12. #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca Designing A Plan Google+ SOCIAL MEDIA & DESIGN 12
- 13. SMART Goals #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 13 • Specific • Measurable • Attainable • Relevant • Time Focused
- 14. The Who • Who can help you achieve your goal(s)? • The more you know about them, the easier it is to find them. #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 14
- 15. Audience • Geography Where are they? • Demographics What are their common attributes? • Psychographics What are they like? #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 15
- 16. Audience Profile • Create a personality profile for your dream audience • List both demographics AND psychographics • Use a real person or people as examples #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 16
- 17. Be The Answer • Your audience doesn’t know you exist yet, so what are they searching? • Do research to find out – speculation may lead you astray • Once you find out, BE THE ANSWER #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 17
- 18. Keywords • Make a list of 6 - 10 words that: • Answers the questions that your audience is asking • Describes what makes you unique as an artist • These will be used throughout your posts and in your tags. #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 18
- 19. Brand Identity • Embody the characteristics that attract your target audience through: • Logo • Typography • Colour Scheme • Voice #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 19
- 20. #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca Google+ Leveraging Features 20
- 21. The Menu • Hover over “home” to reveal menu • Where you can navigate the features #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 21
- 22. The Stream #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 22
- 23. Google+ Circles #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 23
- 24. Google+ Hangouts #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 24
- 25. #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 25 • Link: http://youtu.be/QN38vHZjWXw
- 26. #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 26 • Link: http://youtu.be/8fHo1wI4ioo
- 27. Google+ Communities #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 27
- 33. #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca Content That Connects Google+ SOCIAL MEDIA & DESIGN 33
- 34. Be Helpful • Provide amazing tips to make life easier for your audience • Share techniques #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 34
- 35. #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 35 • Link: http://youtu.be/CKANmjsX6jU
- 36. Be Emotional • Pull on heart strings or be funny... #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 36
- 37. Feel Exclusive • People want to belong... #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 37
- 38. Be Awe Inspiring People love to share bizarre and quirky items #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 38
- 39. Build Community • Interact with your fans • Find the influencers in your niche category and interact with them – keep it relevant • The more you participate, the better your credibility #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 39
- 40. Content Plan • Create an “editorial calendar” • Generate a “content schedule” • Interact live #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 40
- 41. Be Creative • Get to know the tool • Consider alternate uses of the features • Ikea used Instagram really creatively... #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 41
- 42. Thank you • Find out more about us at: antennasocial.ca • Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn @antennasocial #antenna • www.antennasocial.ca 42
Editor's Notes
- Welcome... I’m Christina Adams and I’m here to help you understand Google+ from an Artist’s perspective. Antenna Social Media + Design – we help people make smart marketing decisions by providing targeted and meaningful social media plans, content, and promotions. antennasocial.ca
- Today you’ll learn: Why you need to know about Google+; How to make a content plan; How to use Google+ features; what types of content connects; and how to build community.
- Before we talk about Google +, we need to talk about Search and why it’s so important. Search is a form of inbound marketing – it helps you find customers who are already looking for what you offer, even if they don’t know you exist. You do this by creating content and/or paying to increase your chance at a first page search ranking.
- You’ve probably heard of SEO and SEM. I’ll help demystify these acronyms – SEO consists of ways to improve your website and social media to increase its chance of a first page Google search ranking. SEM is paying for search ranking through things like Google AdWords or hiring a content marketing agency like us.
- But what makes social media even better than search, is that it’s all about REACH. What I mean is that if one person in your network likes or shares one of your Google plus posts, that post will be seen and potentially shared by their 250 friends and then potentially shared by a few of those who also have 250 friends on average, and so on. So by generating content that your fans will “like” or share at peak times, you have the potential to reach a significant amount of people outside of your fan base. It’s like word-of-mouth amplified but your content has to be on target.
- Why should you care about Google+? Google is the most popular search engine, so it only makes sense that by sharing content on its platforms, your content will rise in the search ranks faster. There is some debate over this recently, whether Google has stopped including this in quality scores but either way, it’s a great idea to get your content out there on more platforms.
- It increases your visibility and credibility while driving traffic to your website. If your content is really good, the amount of visitors who take some sort of action will increase, too… and all of this factors in to the quality score that Google uses to rank sites.
- Google’s answer to Facebook. Google Plus is a social network that is based off of a Google account. If you already have a Google account (Gmail, YouTube, Drive, Maps, Analytics, AdWords, Play, Calendar and so on), signing up for Google Plus can be completed in a simple step. This is part of why G+ is the second largest social network – you have it whether you want it or not.
- It’s similar to Facebook in that you can post and share content from your profile or page. You can post text, photos, videos, links, or events - similar to a “status”. Using the “+1” is similar to the Facebook “thumbs up”.
- One of the great things about Google plus is the user friendly privacy settings. As you can see from the left image, you can choose which circle you wish to share a post with, and whether or not it’s public or private. Your Google+ profile settings are entirely customizable when it comes to visibility and privacy. http://www.brandedclever.com/five-steps-to-configuring-privacy-on-google-plus/
- Before we get into the specifics of blogging, we really need to talk about Content Development. In order to use your time effectively on social media, it’s important to design a plan.
- This type of goal setting is important because it helps you identify what activities need to happen in order to achieve it. Start with a broad goal and then make it SMART. This type of goal setting is important because it helps you identify what activities need to happen in order to achieve it. Start with a broad goal and then make it SMART. For example, I’d like Antenna to connect with more business owners who are connected to the travel industry. If I set a goal to gain more followers related to travel to the Antenna LinkedIn profile, then all it would take is one more follower to achieve that goal. That’s obviously not what I’m striving for. A SMART goal would be more like: By Dec 1, 2014, the Antenna LinkedIn profile will have 30 new followers related to the travel industry.
- With your goal in mind, who do you need to to attract attention from in order to achieve it? Using my example, I’ll want to connect with they type of people who will like my film and watch it on YouTube. Sometimes your audience won’t be the final audience... perhaps I want to connect with distributors rather than directly to the audience. The more you know about your audience, the better you can target them and the more likely they will actually do what it is you want them to.
- Often we focus on the obvious, easy-to-find characteristics such as Geography and Demographics – this is the first step. But it’s better to target psychographics. The difference is that demographics describes age, income bracket, gender and other identifiable attributes, where as psychographics describes interests, values, personality, and lifestyle characteristics.
- The more you know about your audience, the better you can target them. A niche audience that is more likely to convert to taking whatever action you want them to take because they’re genuinely interested in what you have to offer. So think again of your ideal audience. Now think specifically of a person or a combination of people to create a personality profile around. Consider the psychographics AND demographics that sets your ideal audience apart from others.
- Behind every search there is a user typing a question. What’s the question that your target audience is asking that you can answer? Imagine that the audience doesn’t even know you exist... Find out what your potential audience is actually thinking BEFORE they know about you. Don’t speculate about what your target audience wants or needs, ask them using surveys or even direct questions. Once you know what they’re searching for, BE THE ANSWER. This is how you lure your target audience to your blog. In my filmmaker example, imagine my film is a documentary on a musician – in this case I’d want to find out what my target audience is searching for, besides just the musician’s name. Perhaps it’s a particular technique or style. Perhaps it’s a location or culture. My blog would be all about that musician PLUS the things that might attract people who would like the musician but haven’t heard of her yet. Blog posts could include references to other online content that’s posted by other people about that’s related. The blog will be a companion piece to the film, but also provide a direct path to my film.
- Now you know what your audience is looking for, make a list of 6 - 10 words that answer the question or sets you apart from other artists. These will be used throughout your posts and in your tags.
- Having a consistent image is important for recognition. The more your brand is repeated, the more people will remember you. A great brand describes your Art while embodying your values and showcases characteristics that will attract your audience. This includes: Logo; Typography; Colour Palette; Voice
- To access your menu, you must hover over the home tab. Here, you can access the many features of Google plus
- The home page of Google Plus is known as the stream. It is comparable to the feed where you will see updates from people who are in your circles. You can create your own content from here, share your friend’s content, or +1 which is essentially “liking” their post.
- Circles is a way for you to manage people who you want to connect with. It is similar to Twitter in the sense that you can follow someone but they may not necessarily reciprocate. When you first sign up for Google Plus, there are 3 circles already there for you: Family, Friends, and Acquaintances. You can categorize people based on your relationship with them, and you can place someone in two separate circles. Circles is useful because you can choose to share information with one circle while excluding the others.
- Hangouts is a way for you to engage in video chat with up to nine other users. There are three types of Hangouts: a text chat, private Hangouts, and Hangouts on air. You have the ability to tailor the privacy settings to your specific needs. You can make the chat public, private, or allow certain circles viewing access. With hangouts you can do the following during your video chat: share documents and other files w/group watch a YouTube video together and chat alongside it share your screen with others record sessions for viewing later broadcast the chat live to anyone I’ve shared a Google + “how-to” video in our Art Series YouTube playlist, check out our Twitter account: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6bLIPnAEiA
- Communities are a good way for you to share content and connect with other users who have the same interests as you. Posting in groups also gives exposure. Be sure that whatever you post adds value to the group. It’s just like in real life, the person who is always putting their hand up to ask a question becomes memorable, but if their question/comment doesn’t add value for others, they become known as annoying.
- We found a great infographic for Google +, but it also fits for any social networks. You can find it in our streams (Twitter/Facebook/Google+/LinkedIn): http://www.plusyourbusiness.com/google-plus-marketing/ The first step, perfect your profile…
- Create and manage circles
- Get involved and be active – comments that add value to the conversation build relationships. Hangouts can help your audience feel like they are connecting with a real person.
- Join communities and participate… ask and answer.
- Adding *asterisks before and after a word makes it bold, use that for headlines. An _underscore before and after will turn something italic. Like Twitter, you can use the “@“ symbol to direct something to someone’s attention. Use images/videos when possible. Use appropriate #tags.
- As well as “being the answer”, you need to build community. The common characteristic that unites all social networks is that their main purpose is to build community – rallying people together around a niche topic or cause. Here’s how you can build community: Be helpful. Provide amazing tips to make life easier.
- Pull on those heart strings... This is why cute kittens and puppy dogs rule the Internet. Also, anything funny is an emotional trigger that has a far reach on the web, uniting people who have a common sense of humour. This can also include highlighting affiliations with not-for-profit organizations.
- Be inclusive but make it feel exclusive. People like to feel that they belong to a niche group. The Internet has enabled groups of people with obscure interests from all over the world find each other and form communities. It makes people feel special or unique as a group.
- Be awe inspiring – bring a sense of wonder to your follower’s day. People love to share bizarre and quirky items.
- Just like in face-to-face communities, online communities are more interesting when people interact with each other. The more you participate, the more likely people will remember you and your brand. Determine your influencers and interact with them and their fans and if you do it well, those fans will also become yours. The more you participate, the better your credibility.
- For all of your online content, including your website, blog and any other social networks you want to run, you need a content plan. Begin with an editorial calendar – blocking out themes for the month or the season or even the year. From there, identify how many times you want to update your content for each online platform. This will give you the basis for a content schedule, which is when you spend time creating or sourcing content and scheduling it to post through a tool like HootSuite.
- With all social networks, learn the tool as best you can and then be creative about their application. Ikea used Instagram really creatively… find an example of g+ being used differently and creatively