What a nice rhyme 'Follow us on Google Plus' and a great new tool!
Like everybody else in the vacation & travel business we came recently across more and more Google+ badges and +1 buttons when visiting Hawaii twitter friend sites or generally surfing the web. Then naturally the question came up what is all the hype about Google+? Admittedly, we were a bit skeptical and hesitant when Google first showed up as new player among the social media scene of Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. It seemed kind of late but obviously not too late when considering the ever rising numbers of members of Google+ pages, exclusively designed for business owners.
As owners of KohalaCoastWeb and HawaiiAffordableVacationRentals as well as our Best Hawaii Vacation blog we had to ask ourselves: "Can we really afford NOT to join Google+? Here is the result of our brainstorming after more detailed studies of Google+ business pages. We think that the structure of Google+ gives us business owners a powerful platform to promote our websites with its unique features Facebook and Twitter don't offer. Consequently we joined Google+ about three weeks ago.
Why we think Google+ is right for us:
1. Open a Google+ business page
After I had opened my individual personal Google+ account, Google allowed me to open a Google+ business page with profile, description of business target, link to company and of course with the possibility to post new, fresh interesting and exciting posts there.
FYI Google Plus offers to link your blog with your Google+ business page. When you do that, each blog post will automatically show up in your posts at Google+. I decided NOT to link my blogger blogspot account with Google+, yet. I don't think I want that, at least not at this moment. OK I have a different 'audience' in Google+ but in the end it would be just a repeat of my blog post. There is so much more to posting fresh content on Google Plus!
2. Start circles in Google+
As I said above I am still a newcomer to Google+ but I immediately started creating customized 'Circles' in my business page for Hawaii, Big Island, Vacation, Travel, Hawaii Activities etc. which seems to be the perfect way to unite same or similar target businesses in one circle. I really like the circles.
3. Google+ badges and +1 buttons
Third step I did was to get from Google Developers the Google badge and the +1 button to my site KohalaCoastWeb which invites site visitors to follow my Google+ page (see top of pages) and to +1 a page (individual page placement) whose content they like.
4. Google+ improving Search engine results
Since we've started Google+ just recently and it's still new territory for us, we don't expect a miracle in Google SERPs of our sites and blog. However, our belief is that the potential is there and should be big considering that Google accumulated the biggest amount of data as the biggest player in the search engine business. The majority of us still 'googles' instead of 'bings'. Naturally we can expect that Google will integrate their social media network with search business in the future.
Mahalo for following us on Google Plus.
So if you are owning a Hawaii or vacation or travel related business and I convinced you to start your own Google+ page, please, let us know when you did so. Happy to find kindred spirits on Google+. A hui hou. Aloha, Pua & Keoki
p.s.
First positive result to report from joining Googe Plus, is the ever climbing number of Twitter followers, business owners of quality sites & blogs in the travel and vacation business!
BTW We noticed one of the best unexpected 'side effect' of being closely connected to Hawaii and Travel sites around the world are...the most amazing photos from unique places in Hawaii and around the world. Most of those travel photo posts are available for 'sharing'.
