The best google + features for small businesses

With social media being a key component of small business marketing efforts these days, it is imperative that small businesses are familiar with the features of the various social media sites.
In the past, most businesses have looked at Facebook as their key social media marketing outlet because of its features such as business pages with insight capabilities, as well as, the most often used, ad promotion feature. However circle feature allows users to separate both the people that they follow and the people that follow them, into specific categories. Furthermore you have the ability to name these categories anything you want, however some of the most common suggestions are “Friends”, “Family”, “Professional Networks”, “Church” etc. After establishing each circle you can then enable cool settings such as choosing which circles see certain posts that you put up, and even make it so you only see posts from certain circles. For example, if you write a post that is slightly controversial, you can set it up so that circles such as “Family”, “Church Members”, or “Professional Networks” are not able to see that particular post. Another cool thing about the circle feature is that you can use it to set up different streams for each group. In other words you can make it so that each of your circles will have their own stream rather than all the posts being viewed together in one place.

Hangout: This is by far one of the coolest features of all social media sites. Hangout is a video chat feature that allows you to video chat with up to 10 people all at the same time. Because of this, it is a great tool for webinars and other video based marketing techniques that businesses like to use. It also allows you to share digital content such as photos and even videos with the people you are video chatting with. Although the Hangout feature allows up to 10 people at a time on the video, it includes a feature that also allows you to talk to select people out of the group. For example, if you were involved in a video chat with seven of your co-workers and need to talk to just one of out the seven, the feature allows you to open up a side window where you can video chat with just that one person while the other five participants continue their video chat. In addition, Hangout also has a mute feature that allows you to not be seen or heard on the video. Whether you use it for a business meeting with your employees, or an informational webinar for your clients, Hangout is a great option for video chat.

Are you sold yet? Google + also has a host of other features that are unique to their site and beneficial to small businesses. As a web development and web marketing firm, eComand Solutions is proud to say that we utilize Google + (along with a variety of other social media sites), as a part of our social media marketing strategy for each of our clients. For more information on how we can implement Google+ into your business online marketing plan, contact our office at (314) 853-9235.