Understandably, a lot of businesses and brands think investing time in Google+ is a waste. It’s no Facebook when it comes to functionality, and it’s hardly built a social media empire, however I’ve written this post to try and convince you that you shouldn’t disregard google plus management as an integral part of your social media arsenal.
At its very basic, you should at least be considering the number of people actively using the platform and how google plus management can capture this audience. In 2013, Google+ had 300 million active users monthly,* a hefty number if you’re trying to maximise your social media reach. Whether or not these statistics have stood the test of time is another matter, but regardless, the sheer fact that 300 million people actively used G+ a month in 2013 is something that should, at the very least, give you food for thought.
Beyond that, understanding why your business should invest some time into G+ becomes very simple – SEO. Simply put, G+ is (obviously) a Google product, and because of this, Google really likes to see people using it. Google is not an impartial umbrella company that treats all social platforms equally – it rewards those who put time and effort into its own projects and products.
If you take the time to incorporate G+ into your current social media marketing efforts, Google will reward your business with a push in its search engine results. Essentially, you’ll find yourself up higher in search engine results, just for posting on G+ occasionally. And that’s really good.
This same rule goes for Youtube as well – another product of Google’s. While video content may seem like a time-consuming, and potentially expensive effort, having one or two videos on the platform can greatly boost your search engine results.
But all of this goes to waste if you don’t have links to your social accounts on your website. You should be optimising all of the different ways your customers and audiences can engage with your business and brand, and that includes having very obvious links to the various platforms clearly visible on your website.
*http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/google-plus-statistics/