MARK BOUDREAU – Brand Strategy, New Business Development, and Integrated Marketing Professional

Mr. Boudreau has extensive experience in various Business Development and Marketing fields including: Google+ for Business, Social Media Consulting, Google Places, Local Marketing Expert, Mobile Marketing Expertise, General Business Consulting, Public Relations, Advertising Strategy, Strategic Communications and Grassroots Marketing. He has served in a variety consulting positions with names such as American Express, Revlon, Victoria’s Secret, XM-Siruis Radio, Johnson & Johnson, and NASCAR. He gathers experience from work in experiential events and trade shows. He has been involved in over 250 trade show events in his career.

In the rapidly growing area of Social Media marketing, it’s often difficult to keep up and to keep on top of the best uses of each platform. By now you have heard of Google Plus, but has your business been taking advantage of it for your marketing and branding efforts?

Hill & Partners asked Mark to contribute some knowledge from his expertise to give us some insight on why we should be paying attention to Google Plus.

1.) First of all, What is Google+? 

Google+ or Google Plus is the social network launched by Google on June 28, 2011. Google+ was started on a limited release and integrates all Google social services while also adding services like Circles, Hangouts, Huddles and Sparks.

2.) How is it different than other social networks?

Google+ will influence how you will get traffic from Google’s search engine, whether by boosting your position in search results, increasing the chances that people will click into your site, or other factors.

On Wednesday May 30, 2012, over 80 million Google Places pages were replaced with Google+ Local pages, with reviews and information powered in the majority of cases by Zagat.

The conversion of Places pages to Google+ Local pages is taking place regardless of whether Places pages were claimed by business owners or not. Business owners are effectively being dropped into the social fray with more customer-interaction potential but also greater demands to learn how to use Google+ to their full advantage. Those who do will be rewarded. There’s a ton of SEO potential here. Most notably, unlike Google Places pages, these new Google+ Local pages will be indexed.

An educated guess is that Google wants to control the web experience from a single spot – if you look at the top of Google+ pages – everything you needs is there: Email, Search, YouTube, etc.

The caveat here is that this is constantly changing – one must be ready……

3.) How can businesses integrate Google+ into their brand strategy?

Although there are endless things to say on this topic, here are three tips for now:

1. Google+ Viral Marketing

One of the most powerful aspects of Google+ is the +1 function. This function allows individuals to share things they like by using the +1 button. This has the potential to allow your marketing to go viral through Google+ users.

2. Moderate your Promotion

One of the biggest mistakes people make with social marketing is spamming their followers. While social marketing is essentially permission-based, you can still spam your followers if you post too often. Because of the potential viral marketing element, it is especially important to moderate your promotion on Google+, because you want those promotions you make to be impactful. More people will +1 your links if you post them rarely.

3. Sparks 

Sparks is a search engine that is based on recommendations. You can use it to share interesting content, including your own, and to seek the content shared by others within your circles.

4.) How can using Google+ contribute to a maximized social media plan for trade show exhibitors?

ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES – but a few are…….

 #  Hash-Tags - Google+ uses ‘Hash-Tags’ like Twitter or Pinterest – SEVERAL opportunities exist here either before, during or after an event. A variety of contests and promos [just to name a few] can be attached to a Hash-Tag.

 +1′s - The viral element of +1′s is beginning to really take off. Done correctly, this viral element can give notice long after a trade-show is over.

 Pic Share/Tag – Google+ has the ability to ‘tag’ people AND businesses in pictures and have others share pics with your brand. Once again, the possibilities are endless – most tags, most shares, most original, etc. — SEVERAL brands are doing this with mega-success

5.) With so many social media outlets, some may say they do not need Google+. How would you argue against this? 

Remember MySpace? Friendster? The control of the Social Media landscape is ever-changing and moving as I write this. Learn from the past, Prepare for the future.  Google is not going away, Facebook might.

See More from Mark Boudreau

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