When was the last time you were active on Google+? That must have been a long, long time ago. I don’t blame you. Google’s experimentation with social media hasn’t really gone according to plan.

You’ve probably stumbled upon these pictures several times.

If you think this way too, then you’re not alone.

Even social media managers who swear by Google+ tend to look towards Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as their primary content sharing platforms.

But that doesn’t mean you should abandon Google+ completely. There are still some powerful ways to leverage Google+ to build your brand and drive enormous traffic to your site.

In this post, we’ll show you 6 compelling reasons why you shouldn’t give up on Google+ just yet.

6 Reasons to Start Using Google+ Again

1) Google+ Content Gets Indexed Immediately

You probably know Google+ is good for SEO, and it’s true!

Sharing blog posts on Google+ is an excellent way to:

1. Rank for keywords that you might otherwise not be able to
2. Drive search traffic to your Google+ profile and then back to your website or blog.

This happens because it’s a common belief that Google crawls and indexes content from Google+ almost in real time. This is understandable since Google+ is Google’s very own social network.

This is what Cyrus Shepard from Moz has to say:

“If you share new content on Google+, chances are that Google will index the page very quickly. Rumor has it that new URLs are crawled almost instantly. This makes complete sense as part of the purpose of Google+ was to replace Twitter when creating Google’s Realtime Search. In the old days, if you wanted a website indexed you filled out a webform and waited several weeks. Today, it’s as simple as pressing a +1 button.”

Bottom Line: Content posted on Google+ is far more likely to show up in search results than other pages, websites, articles, and content posted to other social networks because Google ranks their own social network higher and they crawl it faster.

Business2Community found that they got a traffic boost in Google just by sharing their content on Google+, despite having few followers.

So now we know Google+ can help you get better visibility in search engines. But since you’ve probably never used Google+ or abandoned it eons ago, make sure you’re doing the following things:

• Ensure that your Google+ profile page and brand profile page are fully complete. This is important because Google+ indexes this information.
• Grab your custom URL with your full name or business name. Google indexes your URL too, so make sure you’re getting a custom URL. You can follow the instructions here.
• Stay active on Google+. Make sure you’re sharing your latest blog posts and curating content from your niche. An active page on Google+ will help you get featured in search results even faster.
• Share your own blog posts, using a headline, immediately after they’re published. One of the fastest ways to get your URL indexed is to share fresh content as soon as it’s published. Make sure you’re including a headline and a brief description to increase chances of getting indexed. (More on this later)
• Keep building your circles. The more people you have in your circles, the more likely it is that your content will be indexed by Google. One of the fastest ways to do this is to add all your Gmail contacts to your Google+ circles.

2) There’s a Very Specific, Engaged Demographic on Google+

There are 2.2 billion Google+ profiles since every Gmail user ends up with a Google+ profile as well. But it’s hard to figure out the total number of active profiles on Google+.

Recent numbers indicate 375 million monthly users, while other places say it’s between 4 – 6 million active users.

Regardless of the numbers, they are an active bunch. Google+ Communities in particular now average 1.2 million new joins per day!

According to Buffer, Google+ is great for reaching people in tech and it could be true based on these demographics.

Here are 3 key data points to consider from these demographics:

• Google+ has the highest ratio for men on social media at 73%
• Majority of Google+ users (55%) are from the United States
• Based on the top occupations stats, it can be determined that 78% of Google+ users work in a role related to tech.

If that’s your target audience, then your posts may get more reach and engagement on Google+. Even if it’s not, Google+ still has a lot of active members who’d be interested in your content.

3) Google+ Communities are Still Popular

Earlier this year, Google announced that Google+ has 1.2 million new members joining communities on a daily basis. That’s an impressive number for a social network that’s considered inactive.

So how does Google define a community? According to Google:

• Communities can have more than one owner and moderator, and other people can join that community
• When you’re a member of a community, you can post to that community. Members of that community may see your posts in their home stream.

If you’re still starting out on Google+ or returning to it after a long gap and don’t quite have a following yet, posting content to communities is a great way to build an audience.

There are tons of active Google+ communities, here are just a few examples:

• Google Small Business Community, with almost a million members
• SEO and Internet Marketing, with 140,000 members
• Social Media Marketing, with 170,000 members
• Blogging, with 130,000 members
• Funny Technology, with 300,000 members

If you actively post content and comment in these communities, you can drive huge amount of traffic back to your site. Just make sure you’re not indulging in blogspam. Try to be an active member of the community by participating in discussions, commenting to relevant posts, and sharing not just your content, but content that your community will find interesting.

4) Top Brands and Influencers Have Found Success Using Google+

What do BMW, Dalai Lama, and Playstation have in common? They’ve all found success using Google+ and have a massive amount of engaged followers.

It’s true! BMW and Playstation have highly engaged brand pages on Google+ and Dalai Lama shares his message with nearly 7.5 million followers.

Google+ is a great place to build a community of followers and you’ve to deal with very little competition, compared to other social networks. The added benefits from SEO ranking make it all the more attractive.

Here are the top 15 brands and influencers using Google+ to connect with their audience. Follow them so that you can get insights into how they are using Google+ for social media marketing.

1. NASA
2. Dalai Lama
3. Toyota
4. BMW
5. Playstation
6. Evernote
7. Pepsi
8. Buzzfeed
9. Arianna Huffington
10. Android
11. Social Media Examiner
12. Google
13. Buffer
14. Moz
15. H&M

5) You can use Gmail to Get More Visibility for Your Google+ Profile

Gmail is used by over 1 billion people every day. If you’re one of them, then you can enjoy perhaps the biggest benefit offered by Google+.

Google+ is integrated with Gmail, which means your Google+ profile appears in every email that you send. That’s right! If someone clicks on your photo included in your email, they’re automatically taken to your Google+ profile.

Now here’s how you can make sure people find something worthwhile when they visit your Google+ profile. Make sure you’re doing these things:

• Add your most recent photo to your Google+ profile (or the ones you’re using on other social networks where you’re active)
• Optimize your Google+ profile by including: Links to your blog or website, your bio, workplace information, and any other information you’d like to tell people.
• Maintain an active presence of Google+. This will give a lot of content for people to click through and may even increase circle count.

6) You Can Use Google+ as a Mini Blog

Despite lacking engagement when compared to other social networks, Google+ still has a lot of content posted on a daily basis. So how do you make sure your content stands out?

Unlike Facebook and LinkedIn, Google+ posts act more like mini blog posts. This means that each of your posts on Google+ can have a header, along with other formatting options.

Adding a header to your posts will help you in two ways:

1. Google+ incorporates your headline into the title tag of the post
2. The headline is typically what displays in Google search results.

In order to add a header to your post, you need to make it bold and also do a few other things to make sure your post stands out from the rest. Follow these formatting tips below:

Google+ Formatting Tips:

*This is a Bolded Headline*

_ Italic_
*Bold*
-Strikethrough-

Mix and match styles: _*Bolded Italic*_

Numbered List:
*1.* Point One
*2.* Point Two
*3.* Point Three

Bulleted List:
• Point 1
• Point 2
• Point 3

Link: http://example.com

#hashtag1 #hashtag2

Adding the right headline to your Google+ posts is critical to your posts getting included in search results and breaking up your long blocks of text with formatting make your content easier to read and can greatly influence the click through rate. So use headlines and formatting in all your Google+ posts.

Over to You

Google+ is not going to replace Facebook and Twitter for social media strategy anytime soon. But to get value out of this social network, you need to treat Google+ as an extension of Google. This means that while social networks such as Facebook and Twitter can still deliver traffic to your website, Google+ is so integrated across so many platforms that it has the potential to reach a wider audience.

Has this article made you change your mind about Google+? Are you  going to make it a part of your social media strategy? Let us know in the comments below.

If you liked this article, you may also like:

• 7 Guaranteed Ways to Boost Your Social Media Marketing in Just 30 Minutes
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• The Best Times to Post on Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]

The post 6 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Give up on Google+ Just Yet appeared first on 99signals.

What tactics do you use to get more Twitter followers? Is there a scientific approach to getting more Twitter followers that is backed by some kind of research?

Your Twitter follower count is an important social media marketing metric. As a result, there are numerous articles on the internet giving you advice on how you can gain more Twitter followers. But there are very few who back that advice with solid research.

In this article, you will learn about 5 research-backed tactics to get more Twitter followers.

5 Scientifically-Proven Tactics to Get More Twitter Followers

1. Be an informer, not a meformer

According to a research conducted at Rutgers University, only 20 percent of social media users are informers, while the remaining 80 percent are meformers.

What exactly is a meformer?

The Rutgers team coined the term “meformers” after analyzing data from a sampling of Twitter accounts.

Meformers are users whose social media updates mostly relate to themselves. In other words, meformers tend to have a more narcissistic approach to social media.

Like this guy!

On the other hand, users who post updates that are mostly information-sharing are called informers.

The Rutgers team found a clear distinction between those who share information and those who share about themselves.

So how does this relate to the number of Twitter followers?

Informers had more than two times the followers of meformers.

It’s clear that sharing information on Twitter is better for your follower count than sharing about yourself.

How can you tell which category you fall into? The research study also included an interesting breakdown of the classification of tweets. Generally, tweets were classifed into 9 major categories:

1. Information sharing. Ex: “10 Tips to Get More Subscribers for your Blog”
2. Self promotion. Ex: “Check out my blog post about SEO”
3. Opinions/Complaints. Ex: “Led Zeppelin is the best band ever.”
4. Statements and random thoughts. Ex: “Just had the most amazing pizza.”
5. Me now. Ex: “I’m so tired.”
6. Question to followers. Ex: “What should my video be about?”
7. Presence maintenance. Ex: “Good morning, tweeps!”
8. Anecdote (me). Ex: “oh yes, I won an electric steamboat machine and a steam iron at the block party lucky draw this morning!”
9. Anecdote (others). Ex: “Most surprised <user> dragging himself up pre 7am to ride his bike!”

According to the Rutgers study, 53 percent of the tweets from informers fell into the Information Sharing category, whereas 48 percent of the meformers’ tweets were information about themselves.

Takeaway

Be in the information sharing category on Twitter and be less of a meformer. The key to getting 2x more followers on Twitter is to share less about yourself.

2. Be Authoritative 

Have you heard of Twitter Greatness? It’s a concept developed by Roy Povarchik and it goes something like this:

The quickest way to get more Twitter followers is this: Be Barack Obama. Or Rihanna. Or Richard Branson.

What do these people have in common apart from being famous? They are creators and leaders and achievers. The act of creating is what sets them apart.

Povarchik also created a pyramid to explain the concept of Twitter Greatness.

To further elaborate Povarchik’s theory, a recent HubSpot research revealed that people who have authoritative titles have an average of 100 more followers than a typical Twitter user.

Here are the different types of authoritative titles that can fetch you more followers on Twitter:

• Official
• Founder
• Speaker
• Expert
• Guru
• Author

Takeaway

Be an authority in your niche. And don’t forget to mention your authoritative title in your Twitter bio.

Related: Google E-A-T: How to Create Content That Ranks Higher on Google

3. Avoid bursts of updates

Part of having a big follower count is knowing how to retain your followers.

A team of Korean researchers tried to unravel the reason behind why people unfollow. Their findings showed 3 factors which played a huge part in the act of unfollowing:

• Posting too many updates within a short time
• Posting about uninteresting topics
• Sharing mundane details about one’s life

More than 50% of the unfollows come as a result of too many updates within a short period of time.

Takeaway

While there are several studies which indicate that increasing frequency of posts has a direct correlation with follower count, posting too frequently within a short period of time can be detrimental for your brand on Twitter.

Avoid posting too many updates within a short time. Use social media scheduling apps such as Buffer, Hootsuite, etc. to post updates during optimal times. And lastly, make sure your tweets are interesting and resonate with your followers.

4. Give people what they want

According to a Nielsen research conducted for Twitter UK in 2014, these are the top 3 reasons why people follow brands on Twitter:

• 55% like the brand
• 52% follow to be notified about special offers and promotions
• 51% follow to stay up to date with the brand news

Interestingly, brands posting entertaining and useful content was the seventh-most popular reason for following a brand. This indicates that there’s more to being followed than good content marketing. People who follow brands on Twitter want to know more about special offers and discounts, freebies, etc.

Takeaway

Twitter users love offers and exclusive deals. If your brand can offer value apart from providing good content, you’ll see a spike in your follower count.

5. Share happy updates

Your social media marketing voice and tone play a big role in your Twitter follower count. Studies indicate negative remarks are tied to lower follower counts.

On that account, make sure majority of your tweets are positive updates. Don’t express emotions such as anger, sadness, and disgust with your social media updates.

Takeaway

Don’t be a Debbie Downer. Share positively. Tweet happy things. Users notice your tone and voice. They are more likely to follow a happy account than one which comes across as cynical.

What Tactics Do You Use to Get More Twitter Followers?

These are the five research-backed tactics which you can use to get more Twitter followers. But we’d love to hear about some of the tactics you use to gain Twitter followers. Please let us know in the comments section.

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The post 5 Research-Backed Tactics to Get More Twitter Followers appeared first on 99signals.