Is it still worth it to share content to Google+ ?

[Tim Colling]

Does anyone think that it's worth sharing new content to Google+ anymore, when you share it to Facebook and elsewhere?

Here's an article that got me thinking about this: https://blog.bufferapp.com/google-plus

I was about to tell someone that it wasn't worth it anymore but now I have my doubts about making that assertion.

 

[Margaret Ornsby]

Hi Tim

Yes and No.

If a local business is posting to G+ as a way to attract customers, it'd have to be the right kind of business. The last article I remember finding on the types of people there are largely technically related.

It's not something I recommend most local businesses to do.

But if you're looking at it from a peer basis - then yes, still worth doing. And if your target market is in line with the demographics in the article, it might be worth testing for 6 months or so.

I disagree that it's good for SEO. Just because a product has "google" on the name doesn't mean it works for SEO. Yes it gets indexed quickly, but posts compete out there in SEO land just like web pages. I haven't seen any evidence that Google favours its own social media platform over anything else. Happy to be proven wrong - if anyone can point to the research I'm all ears (or eyes).

And I'm guessing the example given there was between two people who knew each other.

My biggest thing about G+ is that I don't think even Google know what they're going to do with it.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Hi Tim

Yes and No.

If a local business is posting to G+ as a way to attract customers, it'd have to be the right kind of business. The last article I remember finding on the types of people there are largely technically related.

It's not something I recommend most local businesses to do.

But if you're looking at it from a peer basis - then yes, still worth doing. And if your target market is in line with the demographics in the article, it might be worth testing for 6 months or so.

I disagree that it's good for SEO. Just because a product has "google" on the name doesn't mean it works for SEO. Yes it gets indexed quickly, but posts compete out there in SEO land just like web pages. I haven't seen any evidence that Google favours its own social media platform over anything else. Happy to be proven wrong - if anyone can point to the research I'm all ears (or eyes).

And I'm guessing the example given there was between two people who knew each other.

My biggest thing about G+ is that I don't think even Google know what they're going to do with it.

Logically and anecdotally I agree with this.

There was an interesting study done with this though by Mike Blumenthal and Ben Fisher I believe. Their opinion differs from mine and they have more evidence than I do to back it up.

Hopefully one of them will pop in here and lend their weight.

 

[mblumenthal]

I have found, that in the right situation, a strong G+ campaign can in fact provide significant value in Local.

In G+ authority is gained by a having a business page that has significant user engagement with collections and content. The collections and content confer relevance to an entity and the engagement increases the authority of the page. It would appear that because the page has a verified relationship with the Knowledge Graph entity for that business, it confers that increase in authority to the entity.

For the most part, the followers that engage are interested in the topic and not necessarily interested in making a local purchase. But we saw siginficant traffic to the website from them and when they came, they stayed and their dwell times were 2x a typical reader.

This increase in relevance and authority and dwell times improved the rank in the local search results on both the organic and the local side. It is that bump in rank that delivered strong results.

G+ didn't deliver too many local buyers in my experience. Although as the number of followers has increased the web visitors from G+ that convert have also increased.

To be successful a business needs to have solid content, delivered in well followed collections that engages G+ followers regularly.

It is no small task and content in and off itself is of little value.

Here is a video of my presentation.

And here is the presentation itself. Are words the new links?

 

[timcapper]

So I look at G+ in a slightly different way. G+ and the actual map listing are linked ( separate now because you have to enable G+ now, but once enabled, it appears back in the account dashboard.

As Mike says you don't get the "engagement" as a FB page, but what I see is a semantic understanding about the business by Google as a whole. In fact we used this for a coffee shop without a website.

So I use it for collections, local area posts and reviewing other businesses in the area which is great for brand awareness locally and reviews get seen a lot.

The problem though is attributing the value which is pretty difficult.

So if you want my opinion, I would maintain it, even if it cross posting when the owner updates their FB page ( with a slight tweek ).

 

[HRobinson]

I wonder if there are any new thoughts on this with advent now of posts on Google My Business.

At least with Google+ you can automate. Is anyone still posting to Google+ for business pages? You have to search hard to find them. I get some visitors from the pages which is good.

I'm not sure if they help for ranking the GMB pages in search.

 

[mblumenthal]

Posts and Plus really address different needs, different audiences and different roles in a marketing plan.

Google Plus given its focus on collections is more about hi funnel marketing. While Posts, is more about, low funnel, near sale actions. The goal of Plus is to create a general sense of your expertise while the goal of Posts is more to create trust and confidence that the person is making the right buying decision.

They are not mutually exclusive. IF you are going to do Plus you also have to be sure that you manage and create engagement. That will create signficant and measurable local value. If you can't do that then its a waste of time.

While with Posts, it is effectively Google's job to create a situation where you can get engagement.

Everyone should be doing Posts. Plus is not for the faint of heart but if you have a good plan, great content and great photos and the ability to find users that will engage, it is worth it.

If on the other you hand you just plan of posting lame content to either place, fo-ged-aboud-it!

 

[HRobinson]

Thanks, Mike,

OK as I understand if I have many Google plus locations I am posting to but not providing full engagement or have the followers for that then switch instead to GMB posting...right?

If that's the case, you mentioned "lame content." What do you consider lame content?

Do you foresee a tool that will automate and schedule these posts?

 

[mblumenthal]

Lame content = content that doesn't engage

Usuually its "buy from me, buy from me" content. Sometimes that works like here: B & H Photo but if a lawyer does that its a turn off.

Yes if I had to make a choice between no engagement on Plus and posting to Posts I would choose posts.

Just throwing s%&t on the wall though rarely works.... you need to test the CTAs, test the photos, test the first 100 characters and test the content on Posts. If a post isn't getting any engagement do something different.

At least with Posts, you have a shot of getting your message read even if you do not follow "the social path".

As to bulk tools, I assume that at some point Google will do that. They have been developing out their API and bulk features right along and I am sure that this is in demand.

The best path would be doing both Plus and Posts well.... but well takes a huge commitment beyond just good content on Plus that it is beyond the reach of many. Where as Posts can be excellant and fruitful with just good content.

 

[HRobinson]

Thanks again, and a great example.

Maybe scheduling isn't as important with this type of content.

I'll do both platforms and run a test on each to see for a few weeks.

I think I know the results, but curious to see.

 

[mblumenthal]

PS Google did open a waitlist for Multi location businesses that want to test Posts.

Google Opens Waitlist for Testing Posts with Multi-location Chains

 

[Aaron Boatin]

Hi Tim,

From our standpoint, it certainly doesn't hurt. It isn't getting eyeballs on it unless your a well established brand.

But the great thing that we've noticed is that when we post to G+ then someone +1's the post, Google indexes the link in the post immediately.

Definitely faster than using this tool: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-url?continue=/addurl

Hope this helps.

Aaron