It’s been a couple of months now since the world of social media was given a bit of a shake-up with the advent of Google +. Things have settled down a bit now, do it’s probably worth having a good look at the new kid on the block and why it could be good for business.

1/ Building contacts: Although Google is yet to roll-out the business features of Google +, if you’re serious about leveraging your business through social media, you should be setting up a personal profile now. There are some benefits to this. Firstly, you can get your head around how Google + works and can take some time establishing your profile, but, even more importantly, you can start building contacts that you will be able to use once the business features are launched.

2/ Circles: By now, you have probably heard about “circles” and how you can file all your friends and acquaintances into one or more of your circles. That way, if you don’t want to share something with everyone, you can pick and choose who will see it. It’s similar to Facebook’s “friends” lists, but easier. And we can only hope that when it comes to the business profiles, it will mean the capacity to segment your marketing campaigns.

3/ Google Sparks: This feature allows you to get information directly related to your interests. Kind of like an RSS feed, but in a social network environment. Hopefully, this will mean that businesses should be able to share information directly with their target audience (For example, if you sell vintage clothing, and someone has listed vintage clothing as an interest, they should automatically get your feed, without actually having to know your page exists.) Users can also pass on the information to their friends and acquaintances with similar interests.

4/ The +1 button: Similar to the Facebook “like” button, this allows user to “vote” on a blog post, or an article, and share it on their Google + page. Hopefully, more and more people will then +1 the content and it could go viral. Direct Sites Online will be adding a +1 button soon. Will you?

One important thing to remember is the Google is cracking down on those who do not use their real name on their profile. The unknown quantity is what may happen with business pages. So, if you are signing up, do so under your name NOT your business name.

If you need any assistance with Google +, or any other social media platform, contact Direct Sites Online on info@directsitesonline.com.au