Building a Powerful Google+ Network - SMX West 2013

Virante Web MarketingMark Traphagen - Director of Digital Outreach

Building aPowerfulGoogle+ Network

Virante Web MarketingMark Traphagen - Director of Digital Outreach

This is me holding a mockup of the wheel of the Mars Curiosity Rover at the launch two years ago.

Mark Traphagen | Virante.org | @marktraphagen

This is Courtney Ramirez, a Google+ user.

One day Courtney searched on Google to find a Quora page about Google Authorship.

These were her top results.

She recognized that the #2 result was from someone she knew and trusted.

Why did she get this result? Because I’m in Courtney’s Google Contacts (G+ Circles and/or Gmail).

This is Google’s “Search + Your World” in action. The icon shows my result was boosted for Courtney because of our connection.

Google+ is the most powerful network for building influence because it extends your reach into Google search, and other Google entities.

Google social network patents suggest that this reach can extend into one’s extended network: the contacts of people who are contacts of me. Thus Google+ posts are like seeds scattered by the wind.

Mark Traphagen | Virante.org | @marktraphagen Here’s a recent search I did, logged out of Google.

Logged in to Google I get a much more useful result from a real person who seems to carry some authority.

1 - My Google+ post2 - Google+ page post3 - Another Google+ post by me4 - Share of Google+ post by friend5 - Home page of site6 - Inside page of site7 - Another page of site8 - Another page of site

Google+ posts also help you claim more of Google’s valuable Search real estate. Here’s how we captured 8 of 10 1st page results for a week for “backlink removal tool,” a valuable keyword for our RemoveEm tool that helps sites recover from a Penguin penalty.

Feb 6, 2012

Another feature of Google+ posts is that they can not only rank in search but last. This post of mine has been #1 or #2 for “google+ page analytics” for over a year now.

We need to stop thinking of social networks as just linear chains of friend connections, just because that’s how we experience them.

A Google+ network is more like the neural network in your brain. Every interaction you have there creates new pathways and connections all across Google.

Let’s get practical: How do you build a powerful Google+ network?

Starter Tips

All Tips at bit.ly/gplusnetwork

Let’s start with some basics everyone should do. (These all apply for brand pages as well!)

1. Find Conversations

bit.ly/gplusnetwork

Use Google+’s search to find good conversations on your topic of expertise, and enter in. TIP: On Google+, you don’t have to be circled by someone or circle them in order to comment on their public posts.

1a. Evaluate: GPlusData.com

bit.ly/gplusnetwork

Use GPlusData.com to check out the popularity of people you find, segmented by KWs & demographics.

1a. Evaluate: CircleCount.com

bit.ly/gplusnetwork

Further vet their popularity, who recommends them, and their average engagement with CircleCount.com

2. Find Communities

bit.ly/gplusnetwork

Use the Communities filter in G+ search to find good communities where you can engage & get known.

Create Communities for Influence & Branding

bit.ly/gplusnetwork

Both persons and brands can create and moderate Communities.

Communities Can Rank in Search!

bit.ly/gplusnetwork

Communities themselves can even rank in Google search!

3. Watch the mentions

bit.ly/gplusnetwork

“Mentions” of others by influential users can be good clues for other people you should circle & engage.

3. Watch the mentions

Bonus Tip:

+mentions generate a notification to the mentioned user

bit.ly/gplusnetwork

And +mentioning someone in a post sends them a notification. Nice way to let an influencer know that you called positive attention to her!

Time to Level Up!

Now on to some more advanced techniques for Google+ influence building.

1. Relevance sort

Sort your circles by “relevance” to find out who engages with you the most.

2. Ripples

Use Ripples on any post to discover who reshared it, and which of your resharers give you the most reach.

2. Ripples

In Ripples, the larger the name and circle, the farther “reach” that person gave your post. TIP: Use the Ripples right sidebar to go to the posts of your best influence-spreaders to thank them. That also keeps you in those conversations about your post.

3. Create Influencers & "Stalking" Circles

Create “influencers” and “stalking” circles of people on whose radar you want to be. Periodically scan those circles for posts you can reshare or engage.

4. Detailed profile

Fill out your profile in great detail, not only to establish your “creds” with people deciding whether to circle you, but also because your profile provides main keyword clues to Google to rank you in search.

5. Google Authorship

Google+ Authorship Community:bit.ly/AuthorshipCommunity

Be sure to make use of Google Authorship so when you show up in people’s search results because of personalization, their eye is immediately drawn to your result. Also builds your personal brand.

Mark TraphagenDirector of Digital OutreachVirante.org

Google.com/+MarkTraphagen@MarkTraphagen

All My Google+ Guides:bit.ly/GplusGuides

Building a Powerful Google+ Network - SMX West 2013

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