GOOGLE+ WILL BUILD YOUR PERSONAL BRAND
Expectations were sky high when Google+ opened up to the public back in September 2011. It was Google’s attempt to create a game changing social network site, their way of not only gaining their footprint within the Twitter’s and Facebook’s of the online world, but revolutionizing social. They would succeed, right? They are Google, with an neverending combination of innovation, brilliance, and money. Three years later, Google+ is either your favorite social network or you’re still confused by its purpose.
First, let’s get to the raw numbers: Google+ has 540 million active users who upload 1.5 billion photos a week. So there is an active, engaged community for your personal brand to optimize on the platform. So let’s also throw this caveat out: building a community on Google+ is unlike building a community on Facebook and Twitter, with its own set of unique rules. With that said, building your Google+ page has more than its share of rewards. The key term to remember is individual author rank.
+1 GETS SEO RESULTS
You see the +1 next to articles you read? SEO rankings is an important reason for your brand to be on Google+. The +1 button is the platform’s equivalent to Facebook Likes, but with one significant difference: the +1 impacts your content’s SEO rankings. In addition to using proper tags and headlines for your content, getting readers to engage through the +1 button impacts your content’s search rankings. Does Google+ have your attention now?
BUILD YOUR BRAND
The other significant detail that distinguishes Google+ from other social networks is that it focuses on you, the individual. This means that the content you write, regardless of where its posted, adds to your Author Rank. As Google CEO Eric Schmidt points out, content tied to a your verified Google+ profile will rank higher than unverified accounts. As Jayson DeMers writes, this approach completely upends the traditional marketing pyramid that focuses so much on business. Instead, Author Rank personalizes business. Potential customers may be wary of trusting corporations or companies and more likely to trust people. Google+ puts the onus on the individual.
Also, the interaction from the content and links you share on Google+, from comments to getting added in people’s circles, goes back to the quality and trust of your Author Rank. So gather all the content you create, from videos to blog posts, and share them on Google+ – and watch your rankings rise.
