Chapter 2: Leaping into Google+
In This Chapter
- Understanding how Google+ works
- Bringing your Google+ page to life
- Using Circles for sharing
- Developing a Google+ community
- Getting the hang of Hangouts
Free Google+ pages are spots on the Google+ social network where companies of all sizes and in all industries maintain a presence in order to share information and interact with their current and (hopefully) future customers. Whenever we reference a company's page in this chapter, we're talking about its Google+ page.
Conceived in 2011 as Google's answer to Facebook, Google+ is a social network on Google steroids: Your Google+ community can show approval for your content with +1s, share your content, and join in video chats. They can even interact with people who have similar interests when you use Google+ Circles for market segmentation.
Because Google automatically creates Google+ pages for existing business accounts, it appears to have millions of active accounts. Alas, the degree of actual engagement and viewer participation is less certain.
When you consider the extra search-engine-optimization value that comes with Google indexing any public updates, we believe that Google+ has tactical value for marketers, even though it may not be the best place for finding prospects or building loyalty. In this chapter, we address the challenge of leveraging this free social network successfully.
Exploring the Benefits of Google+
You may not feel like dealing with yet another social network ...
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