How to Add Google+ to Your Freelance Marketing Strategy

Are you missing out on the business benefits of using Google+ for your marketing strategy?

Despite the fact that Google+ has been public for two years now, there are still some freelancers who don’t use it yet.

I get it. We’re all busy. It takes time to be involved in a social media network. And you don’t think you have that time.

But if you’re leaving Google+ out of your freelance marketing strategy, you’re missing out. That’s true for all freelancers, but it’s especially true if you’re a freelance writer or blogger.

In this post, I’ll explain why Google+ is more important than ever for freelancers. I’ll also explain how you can get started with your Google+ freelance marketing strategy. If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Hot Google+ Tips for Freelancers.

Why Google+ Is More Important Than Ever

Google+ is more important than ever. It’s not fading away. And it’s definitely worth it for freelancers to start using this social media tool.

Here are some of the reasons why Google+ should be an important part of your marketing strategy:

• Second largest social network. Recent studies, such as this one from GlobalWebIndex, show that only Facebook has more users than Google+, which makes Google+ the second largest social network (second only to Facebook). The sheer number of users is enough to make it significant.
• Google Authorship. For writers and bloggers, Google Authorship is another reason to use Google+. Google Authorship connects your content with your Google+ profile and allows your image and byline to appear in the search engine results next to any content you produce. It’s a nice perk for writers, and you won’t be able to set it up if you don’t have a Google+ profile.
• SEO benefits. There have been a lot of questions about exactly how a Google+ profile affects search engine results. Authorship is one way, of course. Having a company page on Google+ also gives you more of an online presence, especially when combined with Google Places. The newer search engine algorithms are taking more and more notice of social media participation.
• Google Drive. Google Drive allows you to share spreadsheets, documents, slides, and other files through Google. Currently, you can store up to 15 GB on your Google Drive without any cost to you. If you work on a team with others or if you must turn in your work for approval, Google Drive is a great option. Your files are secure too because you control who sees them.
• Business Pages. You can also use Google+ to establish a business page for your freelancing business. Be sure to fill out your Google+ Local Business Profile. If you choose “local business,” Google will include your business reviews in the search results. It will also include your business on Google Maps and in local search results. And Google+ tools like communities make it easy to find relevant contacts.

So, if you’ve been ignoring Google+ in your social media marketing strategy, it may be time to give it a second look.

How to Get Started on Google+

It’s easier to get started on Google+ than most freelancers realize. There’s really no reason for putting it off.
Here’s how you can get started.
Build a strong profile. Give some serious thought to the Story section. You want a tagline and introduction that describes you, 
yet is interesting. Be as complete as you can in your profile.
Select your Google+ Cover photo. Google+ is very image-oriented, so get creative. You will need both a profile photo and a larger cover
 image. The right image can say a lot about you and your freelancing business.
Build a Business Page. You may wonder if you need both a 
Business Page and a personal profile, but I recommend having both. Your personal profile page represents you and your business page represents your business.
Establish and populate your circles. Give your circles names that fit and add the people who make sense to each circle. The circles determine who sees your updates.
Share often. Sharing is the heart of any social media tool, and Google+ is no exception. The more you share high quality content, the better for your freelancing business.
Don’t forget about tools like Google+ Hangouts and Communities. Google+ Communities allows you to connect with others who have similar interests. Use Hangouts for a real-time discussion or training class.

Tip: Google+ transfers photos between Android and iPad

Question: I have an Android phone and an iPad. How do I get the pictures I take on the phone to show up on the tablet?

Answer: Assuming you'd rather not transfer the photos through whatever computer you might sync both devices with (and why would you, considering the hassle involved and the need to add extra software to sync photos with Android), you should go with Google+.

Install that social network's Android app on the phone and put its iOS release on the iPad, and its automatic online backup should ensure that every photo you take from the phone will show up in the G+ app on the tablet moments later. That doesn't mean everybody else on G+ can see your shots — this automatic backup is done in private, leaving it to you to decide later which photos to share.

Make sure you set Google+ to back up full-size copies of each photo: In the app, tap the menu button, choose "Settings," tap "Camera & Photos" and then tap "Auto Backup." On that screen, you can also choose when you want this automatic backup to occur. Choose only via Wi-Fi if your phone can't go any faster than 3G or if you have a particularly restrictive data cap — unless you take photos all the time, they're unlikely to max out most limited plans — or if both conditions apply.

To download a photo to the iPad's own storage for offline viewing in Apple's Photos app, tap the gear icon in the top-right corner above the picture and choose "Download" from that menu. (If only this app offered some way to download your entire album at once.)

This approach also allows your photos to benefit from the "Auto Enhance" automated photo-finishing feature that Google introduced last month, which tries to fix flaws like unbalanced exposure, faded color and graininess. (It even attempts to smooth out wrinkles and pores on people's faces, which I think is going a bit far.) But although Auto Enhance can do a fair amount to upgrade low-light shots, I haven't seen it work magic on my phone's pictures.

RELATED: Artist 3D prints 2D photos

Flickr can also work for this, but I will wager that more Android users have a G+ account than use Yahoo's photo-sharing site — thanks to the increasing difficulty of doing anything with a Google account that doesn't have G+ enabled. Plus, there's (still!) no iPad app for Flickr.

This advice also applies to the smaller contingent of people who have an Android phone and an Android tablet, and to what I suspect is the even more exclusive demographic of users who alternate between an iPhone and an Android tablet.

If both your phone and your tablet run iOS, however, Apple's Photo Stream is the obvious and automatic choice. That can also get your pictures into your Mac's copy of iPhoto or your PC's Pictures library.

Tip: Near-infinite storage means you may never have to delete photos again. Delete them anyway.

Google provides 15 gigabytes of free online storage for your Google+ uploads along with your Gmail and Google Docs files, and that enormous quota seems like nothing next to the full terabyte that Yahoo provides for free, courtesy of the overhaul of the site it introduced last month. And thanks to Google's new automatic Highlights curation, you can even let Google figure out which photos are worth showing off.

That doesn't mean you should retire the delete key from your photo-management toolkit. One of the best ways to take better ones is to be cruel to the ones you've already taken: Inspect the five or so shots you took of the same subject and find reasons to trash three of them.

Maybe there's a shadow across somebody's face, maybe the subject is too close to the edge of the frame, maybe the background is too bright — if you spend a few minutes studying your work, you'll see what made some pictures better than others and, hopefully, will remember those factors the next time.

Suddenly, Google Plus Is Outpacing Twitter To Become The World's Second Largest Social Network

Suddenly, Google Plus Is Outpacing Twitter To Become The World's Second Largest Social Network

When Google launched its social networking service, Google Plus, during the summer of 2011, tens of millions of people clamoured to sign up for an account.

But within months, critics had panned the new service, pointing to user pages bereft of meaningful content and exchanges. They said the new social site just wasn't, well, social. It seemed as though Facebook had cornered the market -- Google was too late to the party.

Perhaps not. According to data released this week by Internet analytics firm GlobalWebIndex, Google Plus is racking up large numbers of new users and continues to outpace Twitter as the world's number two social network, behind perennial titan Facebook.

The reasons behind Google Plus's growth -- it now can boast 359 million active users, up 33 percent from 269 million users at the end of June 2012, according to GlobalWebIndex -- are complex and tied to Google's effort to build a connecting layer across all its services, including search, YouTube, maps and other products. Log into one, and you've logged into the lot.

Google itself is tight-lipped about its numbers. Its last released figures were in December, when the search giant said 500 million people had created Google Plus accounts.

But of this number, only 135 million were actively posting to Google Plus pages. Millions more were using some of the service's features, such as clicking the "+1" button to show they liked certain web pages.

It remains far behind Facebook, which boasts 701 million active users, according to the report, Mark Zuckerberg last year claimed more than a billion active accounts.

though Facebook founder

Still, the volume of Google Plus accounts suggests naysayers were too hasty in calling its demise. Like many social networking services, Google Plus has won over a devoted core of users.

One such convert is New Zealand photographer Trey Ratcliff, whose picture-centric Google Plus page has nearly five million followers.

"It's nice to pop into Google Plus to discover new things. Facebook is pretty good, but it's harder to discover new people or have more in-depth discussions around passions," he said in an email exchange.

Indeed, this may be how Google Plus will find its niche in the crowded social media world: Whereas Facebook is the go-to service for connecting friends, Google Plus is more often used to meet strangers who share common interests.

Google Plus acknowledged as much last year by adding its "Communities" section, which hosts a diverse mass of groups and lets users join a "hangout" -- the popular group video service.

"We're extremely happy with our progress so far, and one of our main goals is to transform the overall Google experience and make all of the services people already love faster, more relevant, and more reliable," Google said.

But some observers remain sceptical that account holders are doing much on Google Plus, and see it as little more than a tricked-out sign-in service for Google's products.

Claire Stokoe, who works as social media manager at Mediaworks, a marketing agency in the English city of Newcastle, said she is doubtful Google Plus will ever catch up to Facebook, but she warns clients not to ignore it.

"An authoritative Google Plus account is one of the factors that will help you rank high on Google (search results)," she said, noting that a popular Google Plus account was an important criterion in the search algorithm that ranks pages.

But she doesn't see the service expanding far beyond the business and marketing world -- at least for now.

"Whoever I ask, everyone has a Facebook account. I don't know anyone who has a Google Plus account unless they are in the industry, and that's because they have to," Stokoe said.

GlobalWebIndex's latest figures show that while Google Plus is the second-most popular social networking service after Facebook, Twitter is actually growing at a slightly faster clip, increasing from 206 million users at the end of June last year to about 297 million today, a rate of about 44 percent.

The study also found that usage was growing fastest among older people, especially with Twitter, confounding stereotypes that social networking is for the young.

GlobalWebIndex is a London-based firm that tracks Internet users through a series of surveys in 31 countries, with an annual sample size of about 120,000 people. It asks respondents which social platform they have directly contributed to in the last month and said Google itself uses its numbers internally.

The study found that Facebook also continued to grow rapidly, at about the same rate as Google Plus.

But the leading social network is also said to be battling "Facebook fatigue" in some countries, with some users growing bored of the service or else bemoaning its myriad changes to privacy settings and other tweaks, including the growing prevalence of sponsored content.

A study by the Pew Research Center in February found that more than half of US Facebook members had taken breaks from the leading social network. While the top reason was they were just too busy, people also cited fatigue with the service.

Judith Catterall, a retired choreographer from Portland, Oregon, said she tried to close her account after getting fed up with changes and a news feed becoming increasingly cluttered with sponsored content.

"It's one of those things where you think 'OK, I have no control,' and that may have been the final straw," she said.

But within 10 days of deactivating her account, Catterall was back on Facebook. She missed her friends.