Google Plus

Google plus is basically a combination of all of the other social media sites out there, combined into one. Google plus has not necessarily caught on like other social media site’s, but is now being looked at more as a tool for small businesses.

Pros and Cons

Pro: You can basically run a business purely on Google platforms, with Gmail, Google Drive, and now Google Plus it all goes hand in hand.

Pro: The number one search engine on the Web is Google, so once you get your business on a Google ran platform your business will come up higher than most places that just have a website or are using other social media.

Pro: The more a business stays active on their Google Plus account, the better chance they have to be ranked higher in search results, there is also a ranking tool built into Google Plus, so the more “upvotes your page receives the more likely you will be at the top of search results.

Pro: Google Plus also gives the notion of being more personal than a normal website. With Google Plus you can add any employee’s to the page and they can add personal profile’s for themselves letting the client or consumer know whatever they need to know.

Con: The built in ranking tool can also “make or break” a company. A few badly bundled “down” votes on your page can end up in disaster. Not only will it make your business look bad, your business will also not have a good chance being at the top of search results.

Con: Because Google Plus didn’t exactly turn out to be the Social media powerhouse like the creators predicted, it lacks in users. The problem with not many users is that even if clients get connected with your business through it, it’s very hard to keep in contact with the afterwards.

Run Down of Google Plus

Google plus has a very stylish social media site, which relates better to the younger generation. On the left side of the cite there is a toolbar. This toolbar has different options including Communities, which allows you to switch back and forth between groups of people depending how you know them and how they relate to you. For example one of your communities could be work affiliates, where you could also have a group of just your friends, this allows you to narrow down what posts you want to interact with. There is also a notifications tab which will always remind you when someone has interacted with you in any sort of way. I think this media is best for reminding and connecting with people.

If I were to convey a message over Google Plus I think that I would use a video, Google Plus makes it really easy to play and choose video to watch, it has a very easy to figure out design.

Something cool about Google Plus that not many people know is that, if you avidly use Google Plus you can push any negative review to the bottom of the search results so people will have a hard time seeing them. I also think that the biggest misconception about Google Plus is that it is a social media site, for example if someone searches your business on Google Plus and they like what they see, they can hit the +1 button, this will now show them more advertisements that directly target that person based on what he likes, which can be a very useful tool for marketing.

Other Facts

• Average time spent on Google Plus by active users on average is about 7 minutes a month.
• 13% of small businesses use Google Plus.
• 38% of people over the age of 18 have ever been on Google Plus.
• 26.3% of users are female.
• 73.7% of users are male.
• It costed $585 billion to create.

Sources

Rainier, Maria. “Why Businesses Should Use Google Plus.” The Social Media Guide, thesocialmediaguide. com/social—media/why-businesses-should-use-google-plus, retrieved on May 7 (2013): 9.

Mothner, Michael. “6 Things You Don’t Know About Google+.” Inc.com. Inc., 24 Apr. 2012. Web. 06 Feb. 2017.