Google+ - Your Secret Weapon

"Google+ is going to be bigger than Facebook!"

That's what everyone was saying in 2011. Unfortunately it didn't take off as fast as people expected, but that doesn't mean that it isn't helpful for your business.  By using Google+ effectively, you can boost your company's search ratings and gain more customers.

Here are three tips to help you use Google+ to your advantage:

1. Fill Out Your Entire Profile

By filling out your entire business profile, you are giving your customers more information about your small business. You want to give your customers more information about what your business does and what it's all about. Complete profiles show up higher in Google searches for keywords relevant to your business.





2. Link Your Page to Your Address on Google Maps
Linking your page to Google Maps helps your business with SEO or search engine optimization, making it easier for your audience to find you when they search online. Plus, what good is your profile if your audience doesn't know where to find you?



3. Ask for Customer Reviews

Many customers like to read reviews about a business before they make a purchase. Customer reviews help people know what they are getting when they make purchases from you. Hopefully the majority of your reviews will be positive, but if you get negative reviews, make sure that you address them and try to resolve the issue. The fact that you replied to the negative review will show your audience that you care about their experience with your business.

How to Use Vine and Instagram

Vine

A picture's worth a thousand words. So what is a 6 second video worth?

Vine is an app that lets users share quick six second videos with each other. These videos are most commonly shared on Twitter, but they can also be seen on the Vine app.  Twitter purchased Vine in 2012 and the app launched in 2013. Since then, it has grown to become very popular with millennials in high school and college.

There are even "Vine Celebrities" that some users like to follow to be entertained. Many of these "celebrities" use humor and collaborate with other users who have a lot of followers to create funny videos. These users are also sometimes sponsored by different companies.

Many companies create Vine videos with special effects and animation such as the Lowe's #FixInSix campaign. This can be hard for small business owners to do with a limited budget.

So how can you connect with your customers on Vine without spending a lot of money?

Try giving your customers a behind the scenes look at your business. For example, if you run a restaurant, create a short video of your cook preparing the special for the night, or if you run a small boutique, create a video of one of your employees opening the box of new dresses that just arrived.

The key to a successful Vine is to make it entertaining and to make sure that it gives the viewers an exclusive look at something they find interesting.

Here is an example of how the Georgia Bulldogs football team used Vine to give fans a view of the team entrance from the sideline.



Instagram

Instagram is an app that allows users to share and edit pictures with each other.  The app is exclusively for pictures...  no wordy status updates.

Instagram is very popular with millennials and even some Gen Xers are starting to sign up.  On Instagram, users post pictures for others to see and like or share with their friends.

Companies use Instagram to show customers pictures of their new products, and even pictures of food.

The key to a successful Instagram account is to only post pictures that you would consider framing and hanging in your home or restaurant. You want to avoid posting pictures with too many words or awkward looking pictures of people.  If you wouldn't hang it in your home or make the photo your next profile picture, you probably shouldn't post it to Instagram. You can also use Instagram as another way of giving your customers a behind the scenes look at a typical day for your business.

Here's an example of a good photo published to Instagram by The Home Depot.

3 More Twitter Tactics

As I promised in my post about a month ago, here are more three more tips for using Twitter to help your small business.


1. Use Pictures

When people are scrolling through their twitter feed, pictures can help catch the attention of your users.  You want to make sure that the picture that you share is attractive and something pleasing to the eye.  Avoid sharing pictures with a lot of text or screenshots of your ads.  In this post, Lowe's does a nice job of grabbing your attention with a beautiful kitchen that makes you think about getting ready for Thanksgiving, when you'll probably have family over in your kitchen.













2. Reply Quickly

Often times, your customers will want to go onto social media platforms and talk about their experiences at your store.  You can use your Twitter account to interact with your customers.  If you reply to their tweet, most of the time the user will be excited that you engaged with them.  For some people, a retweet or a reply can make that user's day.  Although many customers talk about their good experiences, many also talk about their bad experiences.  Either way, make sure you reply quickly to their tweet and never tell your users that they are wrong.  A business account on Twitter should never argue back and forth with a user, no matter how absurd they are.  In this example, Publix does an excellent job engaging with this customer who found an apple at the store that is apparently a big deal to her.











3. Use Humor

The goal of social media is to have meaningful interactions with your customers.  Although your goal
should never be to get a gazillion followers or a ton of re-tweets, you definitely shouldn't toss those statistics to the side.  A re-tweeted branded message is more meaningful and accomplishes a goal of brand awareness, while "re-tweet this if you think cats are better than dogs" is not absolutely worthless.  When you want to drive meaningful retweets, you need to think like an average user.  Most people will re-tweet topics that include stats that prove that I'm right and you're wrong, news, and humor.  For us, humor is the best route to get your name out there.  When using humor, make sure that it isn't offensive!  The best trick for this that I would use is to think of the most sensitive person you know, and if you picture yourself having to explain why the joke is funny and not offensive, then you shouldn't post it.  Yes, your joke is probably hilarious and I would laugh at it, but the easily offended people on Twitter will attack you for making the joke.
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In this example, Dos Equis plays off of their "Most Interesting Man in the World" commercials and makes another joke that received a lot of re-tweets.  These re-tweets are valuable because it helps build brand awareness.