google plus – Nicole Munoz Consulting

Using Google Plus Hangouts to Establish Expertise

One way to maximize your business brand on Google + is to find a way to establish your expertise. A great way to do that is to use Google Hangouts On-Air. You can use Google + Hangout’s On Air service free to give excellent presentations. You don’t need any special software, and you can do them at the drop of the hat.

There are so many interesting features with Google+ Hangout On Air that it’s something you must try in order to establish your expertise and maximize your brand. Whether you have an online business or an offline business using the features offered such as screen sharing, slide sharing, video sharing and more will really take your business to the next level.

The system is not hard to use, it’s pretty much like most webinar tools, but with a few additional bells and whistles.

Host a Panel Discussion

You can ask some of your colleagues or JV partners to join with you in a Google + Hangout On Air session then broadcast it live as it’s happening, post it to your Google+ home page, and even your YouTube.com channel for watching again later.

Host a Private Round Table

Do you work with or coach others? If so you probably often need to have private discussions with them. You can interact on a face-to-face level using Google+ Hangouts without going on air. You can still record it and use it later.

Present a “How-to”

You can use Google+ Hangouts On Air to present a “how to” do something that is related to your niche. When you schedule an On Air presentation you can notify all your followers and ask them to tell theirs.

Build Customer Relationships

Host monthly Google Hangouts just for customers that allow them to ask and get questions answered live. This is a great way to educate your customers about the products or services they’ve already purchased and mention new ones that might solve other problems they have.

Host Product Demonstrations

You can have a Google + Hangout On Air to demonstrate products and services that you offer. Don’t be afraid of “giving away the farm” even when you show someone how to do something, often they’d rather someone else do it for them.

Repurpose & Reuse

When you host a hangout you can record it. You can then download it and edit it for use on a membership site, or as a free give away to encourage newsletter sign ups. You can also have it transcribed and use it in other ways such as an eReport, eBook or even as a Kindle Book.

Everything you do on Google + Hangouts should be in your business’s name and focused toward your personalized audience. Use the same marketing tactics to promote your Google + Hangouts as you would any event you plan to host. Tell everyone you know, ask them to tell everyone they know, and use all methods available to you to get the word out from your blog to other social media accounts.

If you’d like to know more about Google+, then don’t miss our free Webinar on November 7th, “How To Maximize Your Business Brand On Google+”.

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Tips for Using Google Plus for Your Business

by Nicole Munoz

Maximizing your business brand on Google + involves staying focused on your target audience, business goals, and niche while engaging with others. To use Google + for your business it’s important to follow some best practices. First and foremost, remember that you’re promoting your business brand. Secondly, while you want to show your personality, remember that your focus should be on your business brand and what you bring to your market.

Complete Your Profile

Don’t leave up a half done profile for very long. It’s important to fill it out as completely as possible so that no one is confused about what your business offers. Upload pictures, link to videos, and other content. Claim your unique URL and figure out some relevant content to put in every area of your profile.

Get Verified

Don’t skip the verification process required for businesses on Google +. They will send you a PIN which is required for you to claim your business. It usually takes two weeks to receive the post card with the PIN on it. Look for it and verify right away so that you don’t forget this important step.

Share Unique Content

Once your account is set up, start uploading and linking to targeted unique content. You want to fill your account with some content before you start asking for and getting followers other than people that you already know. The content itself will help you get more followers as your friends share it, and they find it on search.

Engage With Others

Google + for business is also a social network, which requires you to be social. You want people to engage with your content by following you, sharing it, commenting on it, so it will help if you do the same with their content. If you want people to do something, ask them. Your call to action is just as important here as it is on other social media sites.

Segment Using Circles

Google + offers the ability to segment your followers with circles. Circles enable you to create different groups for different types of followers. Perhaps you have customers who have purchased from you; you can drag them into one circle so that you can share information about the product they bought. Circles allow for many different types of market segmentation which will further help you maximize your branding efforts.

Use All That Google + Offers

Google + has so much to offer that it can become overwhelming. Once you’ve got the hang of putting up unique content, having discussions with others, filling your circles, and more, start branching out by trying out Google Hangouts and Google events and other offerings that Google rolls out. Using as much of this free service as possible will ensure that it will work for you as a branding tool.

Google + is a useful social media for expanding and maximizing your business brand. The more you use the tools provided the better you’ll get at implementing them and seeing the big picture. It can be overwhelming at first to try something new, but the more you use Google + the more you’ll realize the benefits.

If you’d like to know more about Google+, then don’t miss our free Webinar on November 7th, “How To Maximize Your Business Brand On Google+”.

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How to Maximize your Business Brand on Google Plus

by Nicole Munoz

Google + is so massive that it can be hard to figure out what to do first and how best to use Google Plus to maximize your business brand. Thankfully there is a way to ensure that you’re using Google+ to its maximum benefit and it’s not hard to do at all.

Create Your Google + Page

Simply follow the prompts to create your Google + page, add your company name, images, and anything else you can to customize your page. Ensure that you focus the information you provide toward your target audience. Like with any marketing material focus on the benefits you provide the customer and answer the question they have which is, “What’s in it for me?”

Don’t forget to follow all the steps including verifying your page per Google’s instructions. Also, be sure if you to enable social extensions using Google Adwords enhanced campaigns. You also will want to also claim your custom URL. Having a custom URL will make it easier to share your information and look nicer too.

Add G + Badge to Your Website

It’s easy to create and add a Google + badge to you website. You can create one easily after you’ve completed your profile. It will enable people to follow you on G+. You can create follow buttons, +1 buttons and more for your website right from the Google platform. Then, you simply copy and paste the code into your website where you want it. You can also use some WordPress plugins that make the process even simpler.

Post Exclusive & Smart Content

Once you have your account set up it’s important to use it to post exclusive content, as well as link to your website and blog content. Link to any blog post you write, any article you publish, and any press releases that you send out. People want to know what you’re up to and sharing those business related things on Google + is all about getting the word out about your business. Your content should be well-written, keyword rich, but full of the business persona that you want to promote.

Build Your Followers

Google+ is set up to help you get more followers. It’s easy to add content to. As you add more content, and promote your Google + page on your content throughout the web, you’ll begin to attract more followers. Don’ even bother promoting your Google + presence until you have completed your profile expertly, added appropriate badges and +1 buttons to your sites. You don’t want people to check you out and be bored by what they see. Don’t forget to make yourself available for direct connect.

Follow Strategically

When you choose to follow people on Google + strategically you can end up with more targeted followers yourself. Follow movers and shakers within your industry. Follow people who look like they might be your target audience. Follow people that you are already connected to on other social media. It’s likely that there will be some overlap and that’s okay, because likely your connections have brand-new connections via Google + that they don’t have elsewhere.

Interact with Others

Finally, don’t forget that like most social media, building your brand is about connecting and interacting with others. Don’t become a robot that just shares their own things. Comment strategically on what others share, share other people’s information when it is relevant to your audience, and engage people with thoughtful topics. If you share and participate as well as post a lot of exclusive content of your own you’ll increase your brand’s awareness exponentially.

If you’d like to know more about Google+, then don’t miss our free Webinar on November 7th, “How To Maximize Your Business Brand On Google+”.

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Connect Your Google Profile and Business Website

by Nicole Munoz

Using Google + to maximize your brand can be a successful endeavor if you keep looking for new ways to use Google+. Linking your Google + profile to your website is very useful because your fans and customers can connect with you. The whole name of the game in business is having more targeted connections and then keeping in touch with those connections in the best ways possible.

If Google has this information about you it will be used to add relevancy to your name and business when people search for your keywords and keyword phrases. Once you’ve connected your profile with your website your site then can have a Google+ Direct Connect. It’s one of the fastest ways to maximize your brand with Google +.

It’s Good SEO

Search engine optimization is something you hear about a lot because it’s very important to helping people find you and your business. By adding your business website to your Google + Profile you’re giving people yet another way to find you.

You’ll be More Relevant

Once Google verifies you and your business site, and people search for you, they will place more relevancy on Google + verified businesses than on those who are not. Because most traffic still comes from Google, it makes sense to do it simply based on getting higher in search results.

Earn a Google+ Direct Connection

This is still in the testing phase but what it does is give people the ability upon searching for your company to put a + in front of their searches so they will automatically find your Google + Page and in some cases automatically ad you to their circles. Not all websites will get the connection right away, but it’s worth it to try.

Earn More Trust

Due to the fact that Google + verifies businesses and website ownership, you’ll be more trusted by having this connection established. People like to buy from those that they know, like and trust. Earning more trust will definitely maximize your business’s brand faster than not doing it.

Don’t forget to connect your business website to your Google + Profile for even more bang for your buck. Adding widgets and badges so that people who visit your website can easily see and visit your Google + Business Page will encourage more people to follow you. By getting more people to follow you and link to your Google + profile you’ll increase your ranking exponentially. So, if your business has more than one blog or webpage, put your badges and +1 buttons on every single one.

As you learn more about Google + for Business you’ll learn that the more you use it, the more you share, the more you interconnect everything to Google + the more people who will find you and the more chance you have to maximize your brand. You can’t do it all at once, so do one thing at a time, and do each thing thoroughly and you will see results that go beyond what you might have thought possible with social media like Google +.

If you’d like to know more about Google+, then don’t miss our free Webinar on November 7th, “How To Maximize Your Business Brand On Google+”.

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How to Promote your iTunes Podcast

by Nicole Munoz

Once you’ve uploaded your podcast episodes correctly to iTunes, it’s not yet time to breathe that sigh of relief. In fact, your real work is just beginning – promotion.

Promotion is the magic ingredient that ensures some podcasts go viral or are at least wildly successful in their niche. Without it, the chances of people finding your podcast are, frankly, hit-and-miss.

Let’s look at the best (and least time-consuming) ways to promote your Podcast…

1. Make sure you have optimized your iTunes Directory listing

Before you rush off to promote, do make sure you have:

Tested your feed and episodes
Included every optimization strategy possible in your RSS feed title, description and cover photo

Really think about your keywords too – even after you’ve selected them. Do they have a double meaning you might not be seeing, attracting the wrong audience? Are they weak words that detract from your stronger keywords? Is your title packed with weak words such as adverbs and adjectives? Are these the best keywords – that is, does your target listener actually search with these; or is there a better keyword?

Remember too that your cover photo will be small in the iTunes Directory display, so keep it as focused and simple as possible, with no clutter or background “noise”.

The best idea in ensuring you miss no vital steps:

Create a checklist and run through all its steps, every time you upload podcast episodes.

2. Brand your Series

What’s the first thing that strikes you when you see a Pepsi Cola can in a graphic ad? That the ad is all about cola and soft drinks, right?

And not just any old cola – Pepsi.

One of the reasons you think of Pepsi or Coke: These two drinks are much better branded than other types of cola drinks.

In other words, the instant you see the graphic, you know which company’s product you are looking at (as well as which product it is).

Do that with your Podcasts too. Create a signature graphic and/or color scheme that instantly makes people think of you (or your series or product, if you are branding your series or product).

Include:

A short, memorable series name (in the same font and colors, every episode)
A logo (such as the flaming earth in the screenshot below)
Your website and company colors
Your head shot, if you are strongly branding yourself (and use the same photo every time)
Your name, for recognizability

The result with the podcast series below? People only have to see the colors, the name and the flaming earth log and fans immediately go from neutral to highly interested in a split-second.

That’s what branding can do – so put it to work for your podcast!

3. Promote your podcast on social media

Don’t just promote it the instant it’s released – start a buzz about it yourself.

Talk about the process of creation; and why you’re excited about it. Report on progress and glitches. (Aim this at your target followers, of course – use a Facebook or Twitter List.)

Take out Facebook ads. Promote it on Twitter. Create a Facebook Page for your podcast blog or network.

But remember, in all your social media efforts, to make it about your reader – even if you are talking about your own podcast-creation triumphs and struggles. Only report things that they can identify with.

4. Add your iTunes podcast URL to your signature

Do you belong to forums? Membership sites?

And of course you send out emails to your lists.

If you do any of the above, consider adding your podcast URL to your signature, wherever it’s allowed.

(Note: You can also add an iTunes button with WiseStamp.)

5. Create Show Notes

You are most likely promoting your episodes on your blog with a separate post per episode. Don’t just stop there, however: Add Show Notes.

Your Show Notes should include:

The name of your podcast
Your targeted keywords
Mention of any current trend you tackle in your podcast
Some tidbit of information to stir them to insatiable curiosity

Remember, you have the time it takes them to glance over your little blurb to hook them into deciding they have to download your podcast. If you were reading your Show Notes, what would hook you? What would make it impossible for you to resist the podcast, no matter how busy you were?

Buzz Out Loud demonstrates a quick and easy way to add Show Notes to your .MP3 podcast file in this article.

You should also publish your Show Notes directly on your blog: iTunes will actually scan your blog feed looking for tagged .MP3 files.

6. JV with other podcasters

One of the best ways to publicize your podcast series – especially if you’re new – is to land guest spots on other podcasts and invite guest speakers to your podcast.

Learn what it takes to be a great guest. Make your host look great to her audience. Keep the pace fast, lively and focused. (And be sure to ask for an on-air plug for your podcast, if you agree to be a guest.)

It works best if you interview experts in your niche who are close but not direct competitors. (For example, a Business Coach might interview a Time Management Coach or a Lifestyle Coach.)

Your whole aim, when offering to guest or choosing guest speakers, should be to enrich the value of your target audience’s niche experience.

Besides, interviewing experts is another way of saying: “Hey, I’m the one who knows who to call in.” You psychologically brand yourself as a peer of the very experts you are interviewing.

It’s a win-win situation all round, if you pick your guest spots (and your guests) with your target audience in mind.

7. Build Relationships and Connections at Google Plus Communities

Google Plus Communities provides a little-known place where you can become known as a podcaster, all while making new networking connections and building strong relationships – and picking up valuable tips.

The particular Community is moderated by Daniel Lewis: It’s called Podcasting Technology Resources.

You can ask questions, answer questions – and talk about your podcast (as long as you keep it relevant to the Community’s mission and goal).

And it may be a little-known Community to the average internet marketer and her client – but it currently boasts 806 podcast-loving members; many of whom might make excellent guest speakers… or subscribers.

(Check out other podcasting communities in other social networks, such as the LinkedIn version of the Podcasting Technology Resource Group.)

8. Integrate your promotion across all platforms

Make sure each and every platform is thoroughly optimized, with links, buttons, badges and icons to help cross-share with each other. That goes for social networks, blogs, contests and forums alike.

Include sign up forms, subscription buttons and RSS feed widgets too on your sites.

Always be on the look-out for ways to promote – and cross share that promotion.

9. Educate your listeners and subscribers

Not everyone knows how easy it is to listen to an iTunes podcast.

Not everyone knows they are free.

Provide easy instructions and links for downloading iTunes. Let your listeners know the length of your podcasts too. Many of the most popular podcasts range between 10 to 15 minutes in length: People will often pause to listen to a 12-minute podcast; whereas they might regretfully pass up on one they’d really like to listen to – because it’s over 30 minutes in length.

Tell your audience about apps that may help their podcast experience too. Tell them where to find links they need. Let them know about anything and everything that:

Makes their podcast experience ridiculously easy
Makes them want to learn more – from you

10. Submit your Podcasts to other Directories

Don’t just rely 100% on the iTunes store to help people find your podcast: Submit your feed URL to other podcast directories too. That way, you won’t miss any segment of your market that has a hate on for Apple, or who can’t access iTunes due to technical incompatibilities.

You can find a good list to begin with at the Podcasting Tools blog.

11. Submit Press Releases about your Podcast

Some people will tell you that press releases are “dead”. Nonsense. The only dead press release is one that isn’t well-written and correctly formatted.

Look at podcast press releases in PRWeb to see how it’s done – and notice you are allowed to upload and use your iTunes miniature cover graphic.

There are many press release directories around, but don’t waste your time on too many: Instead, focus on ones like PRWeb that are heavy on reputation; or else find ones that specialize in your niche topic. (Just search using the keywords “directory” and “[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][topic or niche name]” in Google.)

12. Create a provider page

Let’s finish off with one more quick tip from iTunes’ Making a Podcast manual about creating a provider page, once you have a stable of podcasts up and running smoothly…

These twelve ideas are by no means the only steps to successful podcast promotion – but they are twelve of the most effective.

Don’t stop there: Find other promotion methods for your particular niche or industry – and get the word out about your podcast![/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Get the best out of Google+ Circles!

by Nicole Munoz

Circles is one of the things that really sets Google+ apart from other social networks. In Facebook for example, your friends are your friends – It doesn’t matter if that person’s the janitor you sometimes talk to or your best friend from childhood.

In Google+, you can create circles and put different people in different circles. You can then choose to share things only to certain people and not to others. For example, you might share only professional updates with your work contacts, while sharing photos of a night out with your friend circle.

The people in your circles won’t know what circles you put them in. It gives you a whole lot of control over your data, without any potentially embarrassing situations.

Here’s how to use Google+’s circles feature.

Step 1: Click Circles

To access your circles settings, hover your mouse over “Home” in the left navigation.

Then click on “People”.

You’ll see a screen of the people who are already in your circles.

Step 2: See Potential Friends

Click on “Have you in circles” to see who added you to their circles. You can think of these as your “friend requests.”

Step 3: Drag and Drop Into Circles

To add someone to a circle, just drag and drop them into the circles along the bottom.

Step 4: Create a New Circle

To create a new circle, click or drag and drop into the “+” circle. If you hover your mouse over it, you will see this:

The create circle box will pop up. Choose a name for your new circle, then either add people to the circle or create an empty circle.

Step 5: Adding by Search

If you want to add someone who hasn’t already added you, do a search for them along the left bar, right under “People”.

Click on the name to go to their profile page. Then click “Add to circles” to add them to a circle.

Step 6: Circle Specific Stream

Want to only see photos and updates from your friends? Or want to see what your family is up to? Google+ makes it easy to see only updates from the people you want to see updates from.

On the top bar navigation of your home screen, just click one of the circles whose streams you want to see. Google+ will update and only display updates from people in those circles.

Step 7: Circle-Specific Posts

To post an update to only certain circles, click on the “Share what’s new” box and start writing a post. A box with who can view your post will pop up.

To remove a circle, click the small “x” in the top right corner. To add a circle that can see your post, click “Add more people.”

You now learned how to see who’s in your circle, who’s added you to their circles, how to add people to your own circles, how to create a new circle, how to add people who didn’t add you to a circle using search, how to sort your stream by circles and how to post to only specific circles.

Google+’s circles features really makes it easy to use social networking without “leaking” updates you don’t leaked to the wrong people. It allows you to connect with the different people in your life in different ways.

Get Started With Google+

by Nicole Munoz

How to Set Up Your Account

Once you’re signed up on Google+, how do you actually setup your account? In this guide, you’ll learn how to add information to your profile, how to choose who can see what, how to set your notification preferences and how to link up other social networks to your Google+ account.

Step 1: Accessing Your Settings

To get to your settings page, click on the “Settings” dropdown button in the top right.

Click on “Account”

Click on “Google+”

Step 2: Add a Phone Number

Adding a phone number allows Google to send you a text whenever you get a notification. To add a phone number, type in your mobile number, then click “Send Verification Code.”

You’ll need to get the code from your phone and enter it into Google+ before you can receive notifications.

Step 3: Choosing Your Notifications

When do you want to receive an email or text from Google+? Use the checkboxes to select when you do and don’t want to get notifications.

Step 4: Set Your Image Preferences

Choose whether or not you want geographical location information to be tagged onto your photos. Most modern cameras, including the iPhone and Android cameras now tag geographical information onto photos.

If you check the “Show photo geo location information” box, Google+ will automatically add the geo location tag to your photos.

Your other choice is who gets to automatically have their photos approved. Approved photos show up on your profile. Use the blue drop-down box and the “Add more people” button to choose who can post photos of you and have them approved automatically. You can also choose to upload photos at full size from your mobile or desktop, autoenhance and autoawesome.

Step 5: Access the Profile Edit Page

To edit your profile, click on “Profile and privacy.”

Then click on your profile.

Click on “About.”

Step 6: Editing Your Personal Information

Fill out your story, things you’re proud of, occupation, employment, education and places lived information.

Then fill out your contact information, relationship status, gender and alternate names.

Step 7: Safeguarding Your Personal Information

Google+ makes it very easy to choose who can see what personal information. When you click on a field to enter your information, below it is a privacy setting button.

Just click on the button to choose exactly who can see the information you type in.

Step 8: Add Other Social Networks

If you want to add other social networks to your Google+ profile, go to the “Links” box in your “About” page, and add your social networks URLs to your Google+ profile.

You’ll immediately see a list of accounts that Google+ thinks belongs to you, based on Google+ searching the various social networks.

If you see any accounts that do indeed belong to you, just click the “+” button to link the account.

Click “Save” and the account will be linked to Google+.

Now click on “Manage connected accounts”.

And there, you can add your social networks, simply by typing your username, or by entering your profile URL.

Congratulations! You’ve just setup your Google+ account. You’ve learned how to add a phone number, how to set notifications, how to setup your profile, how to adjust your privacy settings and how to link other social networks.

Top 10 Google+ Mistakes

by Nicole Munoz

Google+ is one of the world’s largest social networks. At 170 million active users, Google+ is behind Facebook but still ahead of LinkedIn’s 150 million users. Don’t be fooled by its lower user count however: Google+ is still a power house.

Unlike Facebook, which just about everyone is on, Google+ tends to be populated by first adopters, influencers, networkers and serious professionals. While Google+ might not be the best place to get a hundred likes for the latest funny photo, it’s an absolutely fantastic place to build your brand and market your business.

Google+ also has one big advantage over other social networks: Google +1s have a big impact on search results. Google +1s don’t affect rankings globally, but do affect rankings powerfully on a user-specific basis.

That means that if you write an article about blogging and a user +1s that article, they’re much more likely to see your content ranked in the future. All your content about PPC, about social networking, about video marketing and everything else will get a huge boost because they +1ed a piece of content by you. This alone makes Google+ worth investing in.

All that said, Google+ is often misunderstood. People often don’t know understand how to use this powerful platform and as a result make mistakes. Here are ten of the most common mistakes people make and how you can avoid them.

Mistake #1: A Corporate Sounding Tagline

On a Google Plus page, your tagline is really the only space you have to sell curious browsers on taking a closer look. The tagline is short, but it gives you a chance to “hook” people.

Don’t squander your tagline on a corporate sounding sound bite. Don’t use it on a cute sounding slogan. Your tagline should be something that directly hints at a benefit. It should promise a benefit and get people hooked in.

Spend some time perfecting your tagline. It’s a vital part of your page’s first impression.

Mistake #2: Not Fully Utilizing Links

One of the truly great things about Google+ is that it allows you a ton of leeway on your links. You can put almost as many links as you want. You can link from both your own “about” page as well as your brand pages.

Link to all the different resources you can. Link to all the credibility boosters you have on the web. Link to your personal site, your company website, your LinkedIn, your Facebook page and any other resources that can help boost your credibility and allow people to get to know you.

Mistake #3: Not Regularly Posting Content

Google+ revolves around content more than just about any other social network. On Facebook, it’s common for people to share all kinds of things, from photos to quotes to personal updates. On Twitter, even more so.

Google+ however revolves almost solely around content. People on Google+ expect to receive high quality content from the people in their circles, especially if it’s from someone they know in a business context.

Google+ allows you to post entire articles in an update. This makes it easy for people following you to digest your content all within the social network, without having to leave and go to an outside site.

Publish content regularly on Google+ – It’s the best way to build a relationship with your audience.

Mistake #4: Not Encouraging +1s

Getting more +1s works wonders for your business. It can make your content rank higher in Google+. It builds social proof when others see that people like your content. It helps your future content rank for that specific user.

Getting +1s isn’t something that happens on its own. A lot of people who like content will never +1 it. People are often more used to “liking” Facebook content than +1ing Google+ content.

How do you remedy this? By asking people to +1 your content. By incentivizing people to +1 your content. Make it an active mission of yours to get people to +1 your content.

Mistake #5: Poor Use of Photos

Google+ is the most powerful social network in terms of photos in the main stream. On Facebook, only thumbnails of photos can be shared. To view a larger photo, people have to click on the photo to go to the photo album.

On Twitter, it’s even worse. All photos are shrunk down into a short URL and only the URL is posted. There is no preview for the photo.

On Google+ however, you can view the whole photo right in the stream. Large photos are shrunk down to fit the stream; but even the preview is quite large.

Make sure you utilize photos in your Google+ stream. A picture can tell a thousand words.

Mistake #6: Not Enabling Direct Connect

Direct Connect is a feature that makes it easy for people to find your brand page. All they need to do is type in the “+” sign followed by your brand name in Google. For example, to find McDonalds, you’d just type in “+McDonalds.”

You won’t see any search results. Instead, you’ll be taken directly to the McDonalds brand page. This is true of both searching on Google.com, as well as through Google search bars in Chrome, Firefox and other browsers.

If you’re not enabling Direct Connect, you’re going to miss out on traffic from your highest quality users. It’s hardcore social media users (influencers) who’re most likely to use the Direct Connect feature. Make sure it’s enabled to make sure you don’t lose your most powerful followers.

Mistake #7: Not Verifying Your Page

Verifying your page with Google+ prevents anyone else from taking your brand’s name. Nobody else will be able to get a “verified” page under the same name.

Also, if you’re using Direct Connect, verifying your page will ensure that your page is the one that pops up when people type in “+” and your brand name.

Verifying your page does take a bit of effort. First, you have to post a bit of HTML code from Google+ on your website. You may also be asked to provide proof in the form of a credit card statement or utility bill.

Mistake #8: Not Segmenting Using Circles

One of Google+’s most powerful features is circles. Circles allows you to separate the different groups of people in your life, as well as the different people who follow you professionally, into different groups.

For example, you might separate your newcomers from your buyers from your “super elite” crowd. You might also have a separate circle for contributors to your business and your inner circle.

You’ll be able to post tailored content just to each of those groups. You’ll be able to make sure that everything you post is on-message for the people who’ll see them.

Mistake #9: Reposting Too Much

Google+ is all about building your personal brand. It’s about posting original content. It’s about impressing people with your content. It’s not about constantly reposting what other people are saying.

On Facebook and Twitter, sharing and retweeting is very common. On Google+, it’s less so, especially for businesses and brands. That’s not to say never to share, but the ratio should be much lower.

On Facebook, a good 20% to 30% of your content might be shares from other people. On Google+, less than 10% of your content should be shares. Focus on high quality original content, not resharing what other people posted.

Mistake #10: Overlooking Hangouts

People often underestimate just how powerful hangouts are. Hangouts allows you to connect with your friends using audio and video conferencing, completely for free. What’s incredible is how seamless the video and audio is. It’s easy to use, it’s fast and it just plain works.

Most other kinds of software on the market that can do this kind of video conferencing cost a boatload of money. Even Skype video conferencing isn’t as smooth and easy to use as Google hangouts.

You can use hangouts for classes, for impromptu gatherings for presentations or group meetings. Don’t overlook hangouts just because it’s free – It’s a robust and powerful piece of conferencing software.

These are some of the most common Google+ mistakes people make. Google+ isn’t Facebook, but it’s still one of the most influential social networks around. Develop a strong Google+ strategy and it’ll pay off in customers, in brand, in credibility and influence.