Google+ is becoming an essential part of an author’s platform. Until today, I’ve paid little attention to this social network, focusing on Twitter and Facebook. But the statistics speak for themselves. Google+ has more than one billion enabled accounts with 359 million active monthly users. This is about half as many as Facebook and twice as many as Twitter—nothing to scoff at.
For me, what is important is that the 45-to-54-year-old bracket has increased its usage on Google+ by 56% since 2012. Since I need to expand my marketing to that age group, I decided to give it a whirl. Perhaps this was the missing piece in my platform puzzle.
I wrote my About Page using keywords. These are words people might use to search on topics I write about: the Camino, writing, indie publishing. I added these words seamlessly into the text so people wouldn’t feel as if my profile were one big commercial. I’m sure the search engines won’t have trouble finding them.
I created circles to catalog people by interest. People who follow me have no idea in which Google+ circle I have placed them. By placing them in these circles, I can post to people with a specific interest.
I joined Google communities, places for people to chat about interests they share. Now I can interact with other like-minded individuals and build relationships.
After setting up the account and poking around, I decided I liked Google+. It is nice on the eyes. There are no ads blinking for my attention as on Facebook. It is crisp, clear, clean. I like that I can share pictures, videos, long posts, and develop conversations.
Google+ Pages are similar to Facebook Fan pages. I set one up for my book hoping that with Google+’s content-driven programs I will have more success than on Facebook, which is geared more to traditional marketing. Each has its own strategy.
Google Plus Badge for Women of the Way
In the process, I got a badge for the page to add to my website. You can choose a different badge for Profiles, Pages, and Communities. The page badge helps Google consolidate the +1’s (similar to “like” on Facebook, but with a lot more power) from your website and your Google+ page and makes your website eligible for Google+ Direct Connect. With Direct Connect, visitors can find your Google+ page and add it to their circles from directly within Google Search. How neat is that!
Other Google+ features for connecting with your audience are Google+ Events and Google+ Hangouts. The Events feature allows Google+ users to send out customized invitations to anyone regardless of whether they are Google+ users. It syncs beautifully with Google Calendar and shows up automatically when a user confirms for an event. In addition to sending out invites to Webinars, work functions, parties, etc., Google Events can also send out invites for Google+ Hangouts.
The Google Events feature will come in handy when I have a sale promotion or raffle. Since I am leaving for a seven-week research adventure, I am looking forward to using this feature upon my return. With Google+ Hangouts you can have live conversations with video and voice. This is a wonderful way to connect with followers. You can have author interviews, topic discussions, and more. If you schedule a live streaming in Hangouts with YouTube, the broadcast will automatically record and be saved on your YouTube channel.
I like how everything is tied into one unique package. I’m looking forward to returning from my trip and trying out Google+.
This is where it gets tricky: balancing writing with the marketing. Setting up a Google+ account and pages is the easy part. The hard part is using this new tool on a consistent basis to attract and engage followers. Having a Google+ account only becomes part of your writer’s platform when you use it.
