Social media marketing is widely practiced by many business owners nowadays because of the number of users that are using these sites day by day. With this, there is a greater chance that their business can attract potential customers than the usual. Google+ is one of these social networking sites that can make an impact in every business. However, it is also one of the most neglected sites by most business owners.

Facebook vs. Google+

Facebook, as we all know, has gained massive success in the social media community, which of course began with baby steps in 2004. When Google+ was launched at 2011, many tech savvy and business analysts were expecting it to be a “Facebook killer.” Unfortunately, things did not turn out as expected. With a low number of active users in Google+ as compared to Facebook, Facebook remained on top of the chain. However, this did not also mean that Google+ has been slammed to death. Why? Although Google+ does not have as many active users as Facebook, it’s not even that low either. In fact, according to Statistic Brain, it approximately has 375 million active users, which is still a good number that can already affect any business.

How Google+ affects your business?

Google+ offers a lot of useful and relevant features to business owners. Regardless of the scale of your business, big or small, you can surely reap the following benefits from using Google+ in your social media marketing.

1. Google+ can easily connect you to your customers

Putting up a Google+ page intended for any business is now made easier through the Google My Business platform. It makes use of Maps, Search, and Google+ to make it more visible with just one click of the search button. This platform is very relevant most especially to those businesses that are just starting and wanted to gain potential customers. For example, when searching for fast food chains nearby, those fast food chains with Google+ pages will be listed on the top of the search results with the necessary information such as the location of the store. This way, interested customers will no longer take the time surfing through your social media sites just to get the basic information that they need.

Aside from that, customers can also easily show their appreciation through the Google My Business platform by giving their ratings and reviews. They can even make use of the +1 button to endorse your posts and share them across their network. The +1 feature is Google’s take on Facebook’s like and Twitter’s re-tweet.

2. Google+ can increase your SEO value

According to the study of the 2015 Search Engine Ranking Factors, Google+ authority is included in the overall ranking factor of search engines. This is under the Social Signals which is 5% of the total factors. This means that the more active you are on your Google Plus account, the more you are recognizable in search engines.

3. Google+ helps build your business’ credibility

Content thieves are very rampant, most especially when it comes to business related stuff. Unlike other social media platforms, Google+ ensures that your original posts are accredited to your account. This avoids them from being scraped and plagiarized. Aside from protecting your original contents, you can also increase your credibility because of this authorship feature.

4. Google+ allows you to manage your page conveniently

By making use of the Google+ features, you will surely be able to connect to your fans around the globe. Circles, Community, and Collections are the three of the most important Google+ features that are relevant to all business needs.

• Google+ Circles allow you to organize your connections by creating subsets. This way, you’ll be able to filter the audience for your posts and ensure that you’re only directing your posts to the intended audience.
• Google+ Community allows you to join groups with the same interests. In your business, you can use this to increase your network easily since you know where to find the people who share the same interest with your business.
• Google+ Collections allow you to categorize your posts in Google+. This way, your followers can easily jump into similar contents without having to surf through your Google+ page.

With enough knowledge of these features, you’ll be able to utilize the most out of it to come up with a good social media marketing strategy effortlessly.

5. Google+ brings you closer to your followers.

Aside from those mentioned above, Google+ also has a great tool that allows you to connect further with your audience. Google+ Hangouts allow you to promote business related events and causes to your audience through chat or a video conference.

To sum up, Google+ brings a lot of healthy benefits to every business, which cannot be achieved by other social media platforms. Also, because Google+ is a product of the world’s leading search engine, this alone becomes an edge when it comes to search engine rankings. As many would say, in every business, it pays to be on top of the search result page. The more visible you are, the more you can reap from it.