How should your Public Company be using Google+ Profiles in your Social Media for Investor Relations strategy? We give you the dirt on Google's primary Social Network and where it fits in your IR Strategy.

1. Google+ Profiles for Investor 
Relations
How to use Google’s primary Social Network in your IR Strategy

2. Should a public company use Google+?
Absolutely. For dozens of reasons. We’ll explain…

3. Should a public company use Google+?
 Google+ has a highly male-dominant audience
 IR professionals seem to have dismissed Google+
Profiles as being effective IR tools
 That’s an advantage for anyone who does
 Largely because it’s thought that you can’t use
Google+ Profiles as a business
 But that’s not technically true

4. Google Products and Gmail Addresses
How do Gmail Addresses affect Google+ Profiles?

5. Google Products and Gmail Addresses
 Google requires you to create a Gmail account to
use products like YouTube and Analytics
 YouTube accounts are NOT broken down into
Personal and Business
 If they want to use YouTube, Businesses have no
choice but to create a Gmail account
 If your business has a Gmail account, it also has a
Google+ profile…

6. Legitimacy of Google+ Profiles
According to the Terms and Conditions - Is using a
Google+ Profile as a business “OK”?

7. Google+ Terms of Use
 11. Do not use our products to impersonate
 12. To help fight spam and prevent fake profiles, use
the name your friends, family or co-workers usually
call you. E.g. if your full legal name is Charles Jones
Jr. but you normally use Chuck Jones or Junior Jones,
either of those would be acceptable
 Thank goodness, neither of these eliminates the
use of Google+ Profiles by businesses…

8. 11. Impersonation
 Google+ prevents you from “Impersonating”
 Being deliberately deceptive in Social Media is just
about the worst thing you could do anyway
 The workaround here is to share a Google+ Profile
between multiple people
 This eliminates any suggestion of impersonating
another individual or of deceiving anyone

9. 12. User Profile Names
 Use a naming convention that makes plainly clear
that the Google+ Profile is managed by multiple
people at the company
 Genericize the User Profile Name enough to be
accepted according to the terms of use
 Put your Company Name in there somewhere
 E.g. “Jamie [Your Company]”

10. Branding Your Google+ Profile
When creating your Google+ Profile, what information
should you include?

11. User Profile Name Example

12. Using a Disclaimer
 Because you don’t want to be accused of
impersonation, a disclaimer is mandatory
 Disclaimers should make it clear that the Google+
Profile is shared by your IR Department.
 E.g. "Usually I'm a member of the Investor Relations
Dept but on a given day, I could be anyone at IR
Smartt Inc. I exist to allow simpler, and more
effective communication between stakeholders and
our company."

13. Example of a Disclaimer

14. Branding Profile Header
 Include an image from your website
 Use the main tagline in your company’s branding
 Add stock ticker info

15. Engaging with your Google+ Profile
Now that you’ve create it, how should you use your
Google+ Profile in your IR strategy?

16. Uploading Contacts
 The fastest way to your Google+ connections with
the minimum of fuss
 Allows you to find existing shareholders in Google+
 Grab a .csv file of all your company contacts and
upload them using the Google+ function
 Add them to a circle called “Stakeholders”

17. Example of Uploading Contacts

18. Content Searches
 Search for and save keyword for future use
 Find current content, discussion and even other
Google+ users based on your keywords
 Allows you to monitor industry sentiment
 Searches are a function that is far less effect as a
Google+ Page

19. Example of Content Searches

20. Creating Google+ Circles
 Start with the searches that you’ve saved in the
previous step
 Group the people that you follow by the role they
have at their company
 Don’t over-categorize, try to limit your Google+
Circles to < 12

21. Examples of Google+ Circles

22. Content Sharing
 Always attribute the content you share
 Adding a + before a User Name will share your
content directly with another user
 This provides more visibility than blending in to
their regular stream
 Another advantage of using a Profile Vs a Page

23. Examples of Content Sharing

24. Linking with Klout
 Klout is the most effective way to measure user
sentiment within Google+
 Klout only allows you to link a Google+ Profile, as
yet you can’t link a Page
 Google+ is not on par with Facebook and Twitter as
an influencer of Klout

25. Example of Klout Linking

26. Questions?
 For more information on these and other ways for
your Public Company to use Google+ Profiles in
your Social Media strategy, contact IR Smartt
directly using:
 Email: get @ irsmartt.com
 Website: http://irsmartt.com
 Blog: irsmartt.com/news