Did you know that Bramble Berry had a Google Plus page? We post blog posts every day and in the near future hope to be answering questions from you, sharing tutorials and hosting Hangout sessions! You may be asking, what is Google Plus, and how can I use it to grow my business? Fear not, that is what this blog post is *ALL* about!
To follow Bramble Berry on G+ click here!
Google Plus (G+) is a great way to grow your small business! G+ is similar to many other social networks out there, but is an additional tool that provides extra venues to grow your business, contact customers and get your product out there!
Here are 5 things to know about G+ in your small business :
1. Hangouts
What is a Hangout? Just like the term alludes to, a Hangout is a meeting place, but instead of being in a physical place, it’s done entirely online.
This tool is more than just a video chat program. It allows you to conference with up to 10 separate webcams/people, as well as provides you with a digital blackboard that you can write, draw, and edit documents on.
Hangouts are a fantastic way to provide your business with another great tool. You can use a Hangout to conduct employee meetings, video conferencing and even to work with a focus group of customers. Watch Bramble Berry’s Google+ and Facebook pages for an announcement of our first live hangout in the next few days.
2. +1 Counts
No doubt you have seen these buttons floating around the internet. What are they? What are they used for and how can they be useful to you?
The +1 button on G+ is similar to the ‘like’ feature on Facebook. Similar to Facebook interface, Google allows you to add this button onto websites outside of the G+ social network, which allow you to see how many people +1 your page. In the future, this button will be used with Google’s search engine rankings and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts.
3. +’s
Similar to #hashtags and regular tags, +’s are a great way to let people know what your blog post is about. With G+, you will be able to use thes +’s to be able to search and specific keywords. Say for instance you are searching +Melt and Pour, you would simply just use the +Melt and Pour tag to find any public post on G+ that has the words Melt and Pour in it. This gives G+ a great advantage on searchability results and how people find your G+ page.
4. Circles
Circles are a way to organize your business as well as communicate with groups of people. Whenever you post to G+, you click and choose which community (circle) to share your post with. Word of warning: if you don’t choose which circle you’d like to use, it will default to public. You can choose multiple circles (groups) to share with.
Circles are also a great tool to organize people you follow on G+. Say for instance, you follow people who soap, people who knit and people who paint. You can separate them into separate communities so that you have an organizational system when you are speaking to them or asking questions. With this fantastic tool, you can share your questions only with the community you want to!
5. Etiquette
Last, but not least, we have basic manners for G+. Etiquette is a very important part of maintaining a social media presence with your business. Here at Bramble Berry, we answer every question you pose to us on G+ and we welcome conversation. On your page, keep in mind that it’s entirely public and people can see your responses and conversations. Always make sure that your last conversation is a good representation for everything you and your business stands for.
Like our Facebook page, on the Bramble Berry G+ page, comments, questions and pictures should be kept to soap-related topics and any customer service needs are best addressed to our customer service line, which is open Monday through Friday, 9-4, by phone or by e-mail.
As always we are grateful and so excited to hear from you when you post on G+ and we will answer every question and comment!
Come give us a hello over at Bramble Berry’s G+ page today!
