• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Social Media Examiner

Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

  • 🔥 Free Newsletter
  • ⭐ FREE Web3 Course
  • 🗓️ Our Events
    • Social Media Marketing World (Mar 13-15)
    • Other Industry Events
  • 💡 Society
  • ⚙️ Tools
  • 🎙️ Podcasts
    • Social Media Marketing Podcast
    • Social Media Marketing Talk Show
    • Web3 Business Podcast
    • Our YouTube Channel
  • 🎯 Partner With Us
    • Podcast Sponsorship
    • Email Sponsorship
      • Email Newsletter
      • Dedicated Email Blast
    • Event Sponsorship
      • Social Media Marketing World
    • Tools Sponsorship
  • 👋 About Us
    • Our Story
    • Articles
      • Web3
      • Instagram Marketing
      • Facebook Marketing
      • YouTube Marketing
      • LinkedIn Marketing
      • TikTok Marketing
      • Expert Interviews
  • Search
  • Social Media Marketing World10th annual. Biggest industry event. Get the recordings!IMPROVE YOUR MARKETING

    6 Ways to Maximize Your Google+ Engagement

    by Megan Conley / September 12, 2013

    social media how toIs Google+ working for your business?

    Are you wondering how to increase engagement with your Google+ community?

    Google+ is designed to focus on one thing and one thing only: engagement.

    So, how can you pump up your Google+ engagement?

    In this post, you'll discover six ways to use Google+ posts to stimulate activity.

    #1: Make Your Text Stand Out

    You'll first want to help your content stand out by differentiating the formatting. Instead of publishing a boring block of text, add a little formatting variety to your next Google+ post.

    Unlike Facebook, it's generally acceptable to have longer posts on Google+. If you publish a long post, remember that dense text can be a turnoff for readers. Use appropriate line spacing and paragraph breaks to make it easy for readers to scan your content.

    Use bold, italic and strike-through text to highlight important headings or passages and your post will stand out in the stream.

    Here are some handy tips for text formatting in Google+.

    Google+ lets you format text in your posts.

    #2: Choose Pictures That Pop

    Don't underestimate the importance of images. Stimulating graphics directly impact the click through rates on your posts.

    When you post an image, choose one that has vibrant pictures with bright, eye-catching color contrasts as seen in this Etsy image.

    engaging image on etsy post
    Example of a visually engaging image on an Etsy Google+ post.

    Instead of using the thumbnail images that auto-generate when you drop a link into your status update, upload a standard-size image to grab your readers' attention.

    National Geographic used this tactic to command more attention in the news feed.

    full size image on national geographic post
    Example of a full-size image on a National Geographic Google+ post.

    And if you have great photography, use HUGE high-resolution images, which are much larger than standard-size images. Upload the original image resolution of your photo (e.g., 4288 x 2848), but remember that uploads count against your Google Drive storage quota.

    3 Days of World-Class Training—Zero Travel!

    Social Media Marketing World

    Travel to Social Media Marketing World off the table? Get all of the great content at a fraction of the price with an On-Demand ticket.

    That’s full access to recordings of every keynote, workshop, and session—the ones people travel thousands of miles to see. Don't wait. Get your On-Demand ticket and enjoy actionable content that you can watch anytime, anywhere.

    GET YOUR ON-DEMAND TICKET NOW

    Take advantage of this feature and your post will dominate the news feed like Mercedes-Benz does.

    full resolution image mercedes benz
    Example of a large full-resolution image on a Mercedes-Benz Google+ post.

    #3: Get Personal

    Make it easy for followers to engage by tapping into their interests and passions. Don't just ask fans to +1 if they agree, manage an album of destinations or products and encourage them to indicate a preference or desire.

    TripAdvisor posted ten photos of restaurants with amazing views and asked their followers to +1 the restaurant where they'd most like to dine.

    trip advisor engagement strategy
    Example of an engagement strategy on a Google+ post by TripAdvisor.

    Whole Foods Market did more than ask for an opinion on their products. They tapped into a compelling experience (in this case, travel) that appealed to their audience's interests and offered them an easy way to engage.

    Tools Resource Guide

    Looking for something to make your life easier?

    Discover the tools we recommend to drive engagement, save you time, and boost sales across your entire marketing funnel or business.

    Whether you need help planning content, organizing social posts, or developing your strategy, you’ll find something for every situation.

    FIND YOUR NEXT FAVORITE TOOL
    whole foods engagement strategy
    Example of an engagement strategy on a Google+ post by Whole Foods Market.

    An added bonus of this strategy is that you get instant feedback on what resonates with your audience. For example, if one image has ten times more engagement than the others, it might be worth creating a blog post or featuring it again in the future.

    Learn what resonates with your community to inform your long-term strategy.

    #4: Empower Your Followers to Act

    People love to have their ideas recognized—it makes them feel important and encourages participation. Turn your community into active participants by letting them shape your content.

    Find an interesting image and invite your community to come up with the caption. Great visuals are critical to making this concept work, so choose an image that's intriguing or versatile and has broad appeal to your audience. Check out this one from the Food Network.

    food network engagement strategy
    Example of an engagement strategy on Google+ by Food Network.

    This strategy will also help you identify the most active and vocal members in your community. These are the people you want to pay attention to and cultivate into brand evangelists.

    #5: Pick a Theme

    When you leverage a themed hashtag that appeals to a larger demographic, you align your Google+ activity with the broader community. There are tons of theme conversations that people regularly participate in on Google+. A couple of examples are #MotivationMonday, #TriviaTuesday or #ThankfulThursday.

    You can find popular hashtags in the trending box on the Google+ profile.

    When you create content around themes, you'll accomplish two things. You strategically broaden your focus and you feed your content to a larger audience, which will increase exposure and grow your community.

    star wars hashtag theme
    Example of how Star Wars uses hashtag themes in their Google+ posts.

    Star Wars takes stellar advantage of the #TriviaTuesday theme. Note that they keep their message on brand by developing content that's related to Star Wars, but still relevant to the trivia theme.

    If you want to see traction come out of a theme strategy, it's important to participate consistently. Don't be discouraged if engagement doesn't skyrocket right away, because it takes time to build traction.

    Through regular participation, your community will learn to anticipate these types of activities and become more engaged over time.

    #6: Ask Questions

    A timeless strategy you should incorporate into every post is to ask questions. Most people need to be encouraged to participate and when you ask them questions, you encourage your audience to interact with you.

    zagat question in post
    Example of how Zagat incorporates questions into their Google+ posts to improve engagement.

    Zagat does an excellent job of incorporating questions into almost every post. The result is an active and engaged community that responds/contributes to almost every post.

    Every Post Counts

    As the number of people who add their content to Google+ grows, it's more important than ever to optimize your social media posts for the engagement that helps keep it from getting lost in the stream. Follow the lead of larger brands and use these tips and tricks to increase the engagement activity on your own posts.

    What do you think? How do you encourage engagement on Google+? What other strategies have you found to be successful? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

    Get Your FREE Course: Web3 for Beginners

    Web 3 for Beginners

    Curious about Web3, but don't know where to start or who to trust?

    Introducing Web3 for Beginners, a course taught by Michael Stelzner, the founder of Social Media Examiner.

    Learn the basics of Web3 and apply it to your business with this FREE comprehensive course.


    CLICK HERE TO GET FREE ACCESS

    Tags: Google+

    About the authorMegan Conley

    Megan is the Founder & CEO of Social Tribe, an agency that connects brands to customers through social media. Social Tribe clients include Cisco Systems, SAP and SuccessFactors. Follow her on Twitter @megconley
    Other posts by Megan Conley Âť

    Get Social Media Examiner’s Future Articles in Your Inbox!

    Get our latest articles delivered to your email inbox and get the FREE Social Media Marketing Industry Report (39 pages, 50+ charts)!

    Industry Report Cover

    Worth Exploring:

    Facebook

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Instagram

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    YouTube

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Linkedin

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Web3

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Social Media Marketing Industry Report

    Get Free Report →

    Social Marketing Trends

    The data you've been missing!

    Need a new plan? Discover how marketers plan to change their social activities in the 14th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report. It reveals what marketers have planned for their social activities, content marketing, and more! Get this free report now and never miss another great article from us. Join more than 400,000 marketers!

    Enter your email to get
    our free report:


    Footer

    Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
    Copyright © 2023 Social Media ExaminerÂŽ
    All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy.

    Helpful Links

    • About us
    • Our content via email
    • Our podcasts
    • Our YouTube channel
    • Our live show
    • Our industry report
    • Sponsorship opportunities
    • RSS
    • Accessibility