8 Things You Can Do To Get More Shares On Google+ Starting Today by @adamjayc

Google+ is a platform that presents a valuable opportunity for your business.

Here’s why…

Last year, Google+ passed Twitter and is now the second largest social network [source].

Not only that but it’s easier to grow a following on Google+ than on any other social network.

And with Facebook’s organic reach dropping through the floor, it’s even more important to shift your focus and take full advantage of Google+.

In this post I will show you a number of things that you can start doing today to help you get more shares on Google+.

As a result you will get more engagement, build a larger following, get more people talking about your brand and more.

Get to know your audience better

Your audience is important.

You need to know everything you can about them.

If you don’t get to know your audience, your campaign will ultimately fail.

Not just with Google+ or social media marketing, but marketing as a whole.

When you truly understand your audience and share the content that interests them – that’s when the magic happens.

If you haven’t created audience personas yet, now is the time. And rather than re-invent the wheel, the Content Marketing Institute has a great resource to help you.

Make the content you share about others

Once you understand your audience, you need to share content they will love.

But, the important thing is that you focus on sharing other people’s content and avoid your content being all about you.

To quote relationship marketing expert, Wade Harman:

“Post other people’s content that is helpful & relevant as much as you can. Post your own stuff 5% of the time.”

A great example of how others are doing this is the “Pin Of The Day” posts published by Jeff Sieh .

Jeff picks out a valuable post, writes a short commentary, links to the original post and links to the post on Pinterest.

Sometimes Jeff will create a unique image for these using a free tool called Canva – this is an incredible way to stand out.

Here is a recent Pin Of The Day:

Structure your Google+ posts to stand out

How you structure your posts on Google+ matters.

When you add all of the right elements to your Google+ posts, you will get more engagement; both in +1’s and shares.

A good example to follow would be Dustin W. Stout, he gets incredible engagement on all of his posts because he takes the time to include the right elements.

Dustin also has also written about the anatomy of the perfect Google+ post which is a guide well worth following:

Be consistent and develop a following

In order to have a presence, you need to be present.

That means spending time on Google+ and engaging with other users. You can also take this a step further by putting a focus on helping people.

Focus on making fewer and more meaningful connections, rather than more connections that are nowhere near as meaningful.

You will be glad you did.

Set yourself some time aside for engaging in relevant Google+ communities and help people out – it makes a surprising difference.

It’s all about earning good will and helping is the best way to do it.

Go visual – in the most spectacular way possible

Eye-catching visuals help get your posts noticed.

They will increase engagement and the likelihood that your Google+ posts will get shared.

It makes sense when you think about it, because visuals are transmitted to the brain 60,000 times faster than text.

A great example of someone using eye-catching visuals and getting great results is Rebekah Radice.

Each post has all of the right elements to improve engagement, but the thing that really attracts attention are the images that Rebekah uses. Below is an example:

One of the things that makes these images work so well, aside from the fact that Rebekah does a great job designing stunning images, is the size.

They will the width of the post and take up a lot of visual real estate – and they still stand out on mobile devices.

These types of images are straight forward to create using a free image editing tool called Canva.

Sign up for an account and start a design using the Pinterest template, this means you will have an image that will also be the perfect size for using on Pinterest, allowing you to leverage both social networks.

Another tip to help your post attract more attention

Rather than taking the route of using a vertical image, you could try using a horizontal image.

There will then be a possibility that users will see your post go ‘full stream’.

This means your post will take up the entire width of a users’ Google+ stream – these really stand out.

It’s important to note that there are no guarantees that this will happen, but if you focus on high quality imagery and using a horizontal image you will increase the likelihood that this will happen.

 

Cross promote your posts on other social networks

A great way to start getting traction on Google+ fast is to cross promote your posts on other social networks.

Ana Hoffman is a good example of someone who is doing this well and the strategy works.

I find that some of Ana’s posts slip past me on Google+ and I end up catching them on Facebook.

Here is an example of this in action:

Setting this up is straight forward thanks to a tool called Friends+Me, and it’s free to use for up to 5 accounts.

What I love about Friends+Me is that there aren’t feature restrictions on any of the accounts apart from limits on the number of connected accounts.

All accounts support scheduling, unlimited number of posts and reposts, custom schedules, Twitter inline images and lots more.

Leverage the influence of key authority figures in your industry

There are users on Google+ that have influence over your target audience.

You can leverage their influence to increase your own authority.

The end result is the ability to generate more social shares, refer more clicks, increased engagement and a targeted following that can help your business grow.

Ultimately you need a strategy in order to do this, but before you do anything you need to find out who these influencers are.

The best way to do this is to use a data mining tool called NOD3x, you can access all the key features you need to identify the top influencers in your industry.

Not only that, but you will also be able to access; sentiment analysis, a bird’s eye view of where these influencers are located, top posts, top hashtags, content type and more.

Once you know who these influencers are, it’s time to put a strategy together and a good post to check out for ideas is this post where I covered some straight forward tactics to help you leverage influence in a general sense.

Ana Hoffman also published a great post that discusses specific do’s and don’ts that are worth remembering. Also included are some sure-fire tips for getting on the radar of influencers as well as some solid examples.

Ana also mentions a particularly good tactic that can work well; Google+ link roundups, and goes on to mention a great example of these in action; +FridayFavourites by Mick Sharpe.

Putting this influencer marketing thing together

The posts mentioned above will give you a great head start and it’s worth noting that having your own blog will support your efforts in a big way.

But, it’s important to remember that this is all about building relationships and helping without asking for anything in return.

Be engaging, responsive, courteous and go out of your way to help others – it makes a big difference.

Start making a difference today and watch the magic happen.

Post when your audience is listening

Posting when your audience is most active is a solid tactic to improve engagement and get more shares.

There are plenty of infographics and blog posts floating around the web which state specific times being better than others.

But, that is someone else’s data.

Not the data that relates to your audience.

You need to get your own data, which is very straight forward using a tool like Timing+ - it’s free to use which is even better.

In addition to some helpful data including your best days, hours, top posts etc you will also get a recommendation for the ‘ideal time’.

Swap your +1 button for a share button

Your blog is a huge opportunity to get more social shares, while generating more traffic.

In order to do that, you need to drop your +1 button and replace it with a Google+ share button.

Google’s developer resource has some information on how you can add a share button, but if you’re a WordPress user, adding your own share button is a lot easier.

Stacey Corrin put together a collection of WordPress plugins that can be used to add Google+ share buttons without any sort of technical headache.

Over to you

This is not an exhaustive list by any means but it will provide you with a solid starting point and help you gain traction.

Now I would love to hear what is working for you.

What are you doing to gain more traction, engagement and shares on Google+?

 

About the author: Adam Connell is the Founder of Blogging Wizard and spends most of his time training people to get better results from their blog. If you want to blog smarter and not harder, subscribe to his newsletter to get access to all of his best strategies.