G+ Communities

Nurturing Relationships and Building

an Audience

Presented by

RightStartWebsites.comSonicWebTech.com

Web Technology for the Small Business Community

Event Sponsors

● SonicSpider LLC

o RightStartWebsites.com

o SonicWebTech.com

● Oceanside Chamber of Commerce

o Oceanside, California

● Creata Computer Networks

o Responsive IT Solutions

This slide deck is the companion slides to the event:

Google+ Communities - Nurturing Relationships and Building an

Audience

We welcome your feedback!

John Moore and Marilyn Moore

Presentation Topic Areas

What are Google+ Communities?

Relationships and audiences - The chicken and the egg story.

An audience - a business asset.

How do I build an audience and relationships in communities?

Understanding the process: Commenting, Posting, Sharing and Re-sharing.

Is it Relationships vs Audience?

● A “forest vs trees” issue

o Finding the right balance

o Understanding your own strengths and weaknesses

Build on your strengths

Strengthen your weaknesses

● Unique needs in your business type and environment (local/international/cultural)

o Audience centric vs Individual relationship centric

● All businesses need both, it is not a question of “vs” but a question of the right balance of each.

What are Google+ Communities?

● Launched in December of 2012.

● A group or forum that allows you to connect with an audience with well defined interests.

● A place to learn, help, share and engage, thereby building relationships and authority with that audience.

● Engage via commenting, posting new content, sharing tips and advice and re-sharing (promoting) others content.

● Communities are NOT for self promotion. They are about being helpful and providing value to that audience.

Audience - A Business Asset

● Before G+ and Communities

o Physical networking - travel, money and time.

o Speaking engagements

o Limited opportunities…

● Now…

o No travel, no money, efficient use of your time...

o Built-in audiences of well defined interests

o Blogging format for sharing and demonstrating your expertise

o Relationship opportunities

“Proprietary Audience Development is now a

core marketing responsibility

If you embrace this responsibility, you’ll be a part of the team that

turns audiences into long-term, profitable assets for your company.

However, if you neglect it, you will fall behind competitors with less

dependency on paid media thanks to their development of audiences

that they—and they alone—can access on demand.”

Jeffrey K Rohrs - Audience

“bigger audiences = more revenue

You may think that this equation doesn’t apply to you if you work

outside of an audience-centric industry, but it does. Do you pay for

advertising? Then audience matters. Do you have a website? Then

audience matters. Do you want to grow your business? Then audience

matters…”

Jeffrey K Rohrs - Audience

Building an Audience

● OPA - Other People’s Audiences

o Find audiences that can relate to you and your business’s core principles

o Find audiences that share your passions and interests

● Where do you find OPAs

o Popular blog sites - work to become a guest blogger there

o Special interest forums - Help and contribute

o Conferences and Events - Be a speaker, contributor

o Online groups and communities

● Google+ Communities

A good place to start

Eric Enge’s OPA Strategy

1. Size - big is nice but quality is better

2. Relevance - interests and topics that relate to your business

3. Ease of getting started - Nothing works unless you start.

4. Quality of Existing Content - You are the company you keep.

5. Authority - the quality of the group members

6. Quality of YOUR content - It must measure up or you will be ignored

7. Opportunism - Get out there, the apple won’t fall on your head unless you are standing under an apple tree.

G+ Communities

● Designed for deeper engagement

o Conversations and formatting

o +1 = I like what you said or thanks for the comment

o +Mention = directing the engagement

o Comments = join into the conversation and become “familiar”

o Contribute - sharing content of others

o Posting - Add your unique voice and ideas

● Multi-media - most all forms of content

o Post video, images, infographics, podcasts and long form content.

o Visual is powerful and attention-getting

● Watch for engagers and circle

Begin Gently

Attracting an Audience Strategy

1. Find one or more communities to join (see OPA)

2. Begin by being an observer

a. Watch the conversations

b. Make note of the influencers

c. Zero in on the etiquette and guidelines of the community

3. Start commenting - come out of the shadows

a. Always add value

b. Circle those that engage with your comments

c. Become “familiar”

d. When in doubt - keep your comments “lite”

4. Start re-sharing others’ content from the community

Attracting an Audience Strategy

1. Another venue - Hangouts On Air - Join the audience

a. Try and join the live broadcast if possible

b. Post questions and/or comments

c. Become “familiar”

2. Re-share new content INTO the community

a. Add value to the share

b. Summarize an HOA, or blog post from a reputable source

c. Engage in comments

d. +1 all comments

3. Posting new content - sparingly - no self-promotion

Be Visible - Find a Vantage Point

Parts of a Re-share

Viewing Post Activity

Post Activity

Plus Mentioning

Effects of Plus Mentioning

● Used in Posts and Comments

● Triggers notifications to those users

● Can be linked to an email address (outside of Google+)

● Ties and links users to the conversation.

● Can bring in users not currently involved

● Can be abused.

Searching for +Names

The Perfect Post

● Engaging Content

● Title and Description (Formatting)

● Give Credit generously

● Plus mention

● Carefully edit and format

● Citations, if appropriate

● Photos and Images

● Encourage Engagement (questions?)

● HashTags

Ripples

Ripples

Nurturing Relationships

New Tools, Old Rules

● Find and circle those that interest you

● Become visible and be familiar

● Approach and be approachable

● Engage and respond

● Be consistent

-Wade Harman

“Don’t force it. Be yourself and the people that you want to

surround you will come with time. You can’t rush anything

that’s worth doing right. The relationship is the foundation on

which you can build your online business. After a while, you

begin to understand that it’s not the links, not the traffic, not

even the money that make your business run perfectly, but it’s

the people with whom you have cultivated a strong bond with

over time.”

Wade Harman

Thank You!

G+ Communities

Nurturing Relationships and Building an Audience