In addition to Facebook and LinkedIn, Google+ is a very important social network to use for your agency, for slightly different – but equally important – reasons.
Google+ is very similar to Facebook in terms of the look and the display of posts, and it’s also very similar in terms of editing your page, adding photos or graphics… but the benefits come from elsewhere.
To set up your Google+ profile, you need a Google account. You may already have one from your Gmail account, for example, but if not then just go to https://plus.google.com/, click on ‘Create an Account’ and get cracking. You will be directed to your new Gmail account dashboard and from there, at the top right of the page, click the Google+ icon to set up the profile. As an individual you can then set up the company page much the same way as with Facebook.
Google+ allows you to create your own ‘circles’, which are selected groups of contacts. Already in place when you start are circles for Friends, Family, Acquaintances and Following (which is the group of people whose profiles you’ve signed up to follow). You can very easily add your own circles as you go, and you can define these groups of people as you wish. This is so that you can target your posts to relevant circles of interest and create little online communities of like minded people.
Why is Google+ so important? Given this network is owned and run by Google itself, it’s clear that your interactions on Google+ help Google assess you and your website – and the more connected, valued by others, and engaging your profile, the more Google will attribute those positive attributes to your website’s ranking.
In summary: Google+ helps your SEO. As such, we strongly recommend that you interact with people as much as possible on your Google+ profile, and with other company pages, including your competitors.