Tag: Social Media Breakfast

Google+ for Brands

Google+
Last week at Social Media Breakfast Chicago, I was pleased to lead a lively discussion with several smart marketers and community managers on Google+. Everyone is in the planning stages and waiting to see exactly what Google has in store for brands hopefully still this year!

It feels like Google+ is moving forward ever so methodically. There is now an API available though it’s limited to public data at the moment. In fact, this week I connected my Google+ profile to my Engage121 account.

The group relayed stories how their brands and clients are anxiously waiting for the business pages to be rolled out. Here is a list of things you can do now to prepare.

1. Get in and use it as a personal profile now to get the feel.

2. Get your colleagues and valued connections from other platforms to join now and learn together. Share some posts with each other or start a Hangout (my favorite function!).

3. Start setting up circles of your brand’s communities. Think of segmenting them just like you would segment targeted mailing lists. We are assuming that one could share circles built in one’s personal profile over to the brand, so much of your targeting prep work can be done here and now.

4. Start collecting Google+ profiles now of your customers, industry experts, and other important influencers – just like Twitter handles in 2009 or phone numbers in 1940.

5. Get your photo to show up in Google searches. This is a great little tip I found from the always-informative marketing blog by Jim Connolly.

6. Watch what the beta test brands are doing. Check out Ford.

7. Connect with me on Google+ and we’ll all figure it out together!

This Saturday at FranCamp in Nashville, I will be leading a roundtable lunch discussion on Google+ for Franchise Systems with my friend Deb Evans. If you’re in the area and interested n social marketing or franchising – or just want a good reason to go spend a day in Music City – please join us! Agenda and registration details below:

What Are You Going to Do with Google+ ?


I’m looking forward to leading a discussion at this month’s Social Media Breakfast Chicago at Sprint in Chicago on the topic of Google+. I’m interested to hear how participants are using G+ now and what their plans are for business pages when they are finally rolled out. We will share some ideas for getting your brand ready for the business pages launch.

If you were able to jump in fast enough to SMB Chicago’s registration, I’ll see you there (it’s now sold out). If not, do yourself a favor and subscribe to the email list to get on the list for future SM Chicago events here.