According to Mashable, Google+ recently began rolling out its new vanity URLs. These URLs let users customize their profiles and make it easier for the user to direct others to their page or profile with an easy-to-remember web address.
Currently, each user has a long string of numbers as the link to their profile. (Ex: https://plus.google.com/u/0/106309878296259417958/posts) It’s impossible to remember and makes it hard for businesses to direct customers to their Google+ page. The new vanity URLs will allow users to choose a shorter, memorable URL that they can easily tell customers to visit.
Vanity URLs are only available to popular brands and celebrities on Google+ now (like Britney Spears, Toyota and Delta), but soon the company will make these available to everyone.
Will vanity URLs encourage you to use Google+ more often and send more customers to your page?
If you haven’t already, it’s time to begin embracing the newest social network, Google+. With the release of Google’s “Search plus Your World,” information from Google+ is now being heavily incorporated into the search results. This means that now is the perfect time to create a brand page. Once you have it set up and you’re ready to start interacting with your Google+ followers, here are some tips to follow.
1. Use Circles to target your audience. One of the key features of Google+ is Circles. You can use Circles to separate your followers into categories then choose who to share with. This helps you share information only with people who will find it interesting, rather than just everyone who follows you on the social network. It will help keep people (i.e. customers, prospects and employees) more engaged so they will be less likely to un-follow you.
2. Create multimedia posts. Google+ is integrated with YouTube as well as Picasa, which means you can easily incorporate videos and photos into your posts. Using videos and photos in your posts makes them more interesting for your followers.
3. Use Google Hangouts to connect with customers. With Google Hangouts you can video chat with up to 10 people, allowing brands to start chats with customers. This could potentially allow brands to use Google+ for customer service purposes. Google is also currently testing it’s “On Air” feature which will allow brands to broadcast video messages out to their followers on Google+.
It’s extremely beneficial for your business to be found on Google+ with the incorporation of information from the social network in the Google search results. The more interesting you make your content; the more users will follow you. Then when users are searching for information related to your business on the most popular search engine, Google, they will be likely to come across your Google+ page.
According to Mashable, Google+ just launched Trending Topics Thursday night, November 18. It’s similar to Twitter’s Trending Topics and includes 10 of the hottest and most popular discussion items on the social network. When a user clicks on one of the topics, a search query is launched and posts about the topic by other users on Google+ are displayed.
In addition to adding Trending Topics, Google also made some changes regarding Google+ Search. Users can search the entire Google+ network, within their circles or within their own posts.
Trending topics helped Twitter become the place where people turned to find out what others were talking about at any point in time. Now with Google+ jumping on the Bandwagon, does Twitter have to watch its back?
This screenshot shows Google+'s new Trending Topics.
