Google+ made a big splash in social media when it went public earlier this year. It is now the fastest growing social media website in history. One of its most popular, and most advanced, features is the hangout feature that allows users to meet in a group video chat session. It can be a lot of fun. But for businesses, it can also be profitable.
In order to host a Google+ hangout, you have to have a Google+ profile or page. It’s important to note that you can’t have a brand page until you first have a personal profile.
Yes, businesses are prevented from having personal profiles. But they are not prevented from having brand pages. That’s an important distinction.
To get started with using Google+ hangouts for interactive marketing, sign up for a personal Google+ account. Once you do that, add a page for your business. You can switch between your personal account and your brand page to interact with other Google+ users. You can leave comments and +1 posts as your brand page. You can also share and reshare posts as a brand page. And you can host hangouts.
Sign in as your brand page and click the hangout button. Your hangout can be public or it can be limited to just your circles. You can even limit your hangout to specific circles. For instance, as a way to manage your followers, you can divide them into groups (called circles) and organize them according to what makes since for your business.
Let’s say you run a local bookstore. You might have a circle for customers, people you know have bought books in your store. You might have another for prospects, people you don’t know. You could have one for preferred customers, people who you see more often than others. And you could have another circle for event organizers, people who organize events that take place in your bookstore.
When you start a hangout, you’ll be asked to make your hangout available to all of your circles, specific circles only, or the public.
Once people start arriving in your hangout, just start interacting. Make sure your hangout is indeed interactive and not a sales pitch. You’ll likely drive your participants away if it looks like a marketing ploy. Just have fun, be entertaining and even informative, but make sure you hangout passes value. Be interactive.
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