The recent beta release of Google+ provides a good opportunity to revisit a topic in which our clients have expressed a keen and consistent interest- leveraging social media to promote small business. Google's new offering is especially exciting to small business owners given the tie-in with search results- instead your clients' feedback appearing only on a wall or feed, this feedback will show up directly in the results for any relevant Google search performed by anyone they're connected with.
For the ~80% of people using Google for their searches, this is like handing your clients a highlighter and setting them loose on the phone books of all of their friends.
With all of the buzzwords surrounding social media- like buttons, wall posts, twitter feeds, microblogging, check-ins, the list goes on- it can be easy to lose sight of the point behind it all: You have happy clients, and you want to encourage them to tell their friends about you so that those friends can, in turn, become happy clients. Sprinkling Like, Follow, and now +1 buttons on your site makes it easier, but remember that's just the first step- regardless of how easy you make it, visitors to your site have to /want/ to click them to make them anything more than an indication that you're aware of current trends.
If you're interested in finding out how to make social media, including Google+, work for your site and business, contact us to find out more!
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