Google+ is social media, and as such it can be a good way to communicate with your current customers and potential future ones. But you might say, isn't Facebook just as good for this? Well, not quite…
Facebook is great when you want to follow all of your friends and send a post to everyone. But what if you only want to follow a sub-set of all of your friends, and sometimes want to send out a message only to some of them? This is where Google+ shines. It was created to cater to business people who want to follow and communicate with different groups of people; and do it often.
My previous blog post said Google+ can help your business. So let's try out an example. Say you are a professional makeup artist who mostly works with brides the day of their wedding, but sometimes you get a client who needs your help for a special occasion, but not a wedding. What would you do with Google+?
First you would create a Google+ account using your name (not your company name). You would include your address, email, phone number, a link to your website (and blog if you have one), a tag line briefly describing your business, and an introduction to you and your business.
Next you would create a few "circles". Perhaps you might call them:
1. Wedding clients
2. Non-wedding clients
3. Potential clients
4. Other Makeup Artists
And likely also create a few non-professional circles like:
5. Family
6. Local Friends
7. International Friends
Step 3 is adding people to your circles. Within Google+ it's easy to enter a person's name and see if they already have a Google+ account. If they do, you just add them to the appropriate circle. If you can't find them, you might send them an email asking if they plan to get a Google+ account because you would like to include them in your circle. People like to know you are interested in them. When someone is in one of your circles, you can see what they post (but they don't see what you post unless they add you to one of their circles).
You might wonder why I suggested a circle called "Other Makeup Artists." The reason is that you might learn from them. If you check out the posts in this circle from time to time, you can read what other professionals in your business are thinking and doing. So find them on Google+ and add them to this circle.
But how can you get the names of potential clients. Often a happy existing client tells her friends how great you were. Her friends may, on their own, find you on Google+ and add you to their circle. When you get the notification, you can add them to your Potential Client circle. But a more direct way would be to ask existing clients from time to time if they have any friends who are planning a wedding, and then add their friends to your Potential Client circle.
So what's Step 4? This is the fun part… and the useful one for your business. You get to check out the posts from each of your circles whenever you want. And you only have to view the posts from people in a particular circle. So if you're tired of reading about your family and friends, you can just see what your existing wedding clients are saying. Perhaps they might talk about an upcoming wedding of a friend which you can comment on and ask if they might need some help with their makeup.
And you also get to post. It would be useful to send out a post from time to time talking about what you're doing. For instance, you might want to post a wedding tip to people in your Wedding Clients and Potential Clients circles. Your existing wedding clients may then share your post with their friends, and voila, you are beginning to be exposed to more potential clients.
When people read one of your posts, if they are interested, they can also see your profile which includes a link to your website and some description of your service. So create a big "circle" on the web: connect your website to your Google+ account and vice versa.
Good luck!
