Google+ – The Platform You Need to Be On…

This week is social media platform week on DenytheBox.com. Monday, we spoke about microsites (not technically a platform, but a tool that can be very useful to businesses). Yesterday, we discussed Foursquare (not one of my favs). Today we talk about one of my favorite social media platforms… Google+.

I am a guest lecturer at the City Colleges of Chicago and I used to teach that the only people who are on Google+ are Google employees. That may have been true a year ago and was probably completely truthful two years ago. However, it is definitely not the case anymore. According to a recent study by Trendstream, a UK Market Research firm that studies social media usage, Google+ is now the platform with the second greatest amount of users with Facebook leading, YouTube at #3 and Twitter at #4. (See the Forbes.com coverage of the report here.)

Google+ is a very good-looking social media platform, that I believe, may be better built than Facebook. It is much cleaner and is not plagued with advertising like Facebook. So why are people not on Google+ yet? I think people are starting to come around but I think that Google’s reputation as the Big Brother of the Internet is keeping people away.

So do you need to be on Google+? ABSOLUTELY!!! Why? Because Google wants you to be and will like you more if you listen to them. If you are a business owner, blogger, content producer or want to be found on Google.com, you must be on Google+.

The number one factor in Google page rank is Google +1’s. A “+1” is Google’s equivalent to the Facebook’s “Like.” So the more likes you rack up on Google+, the higher you will be ranked on Google.com. Even if you take the +1’s out of the picture, the more content you post on Google+, the better off you will be.

Boxless Media (www.boxlessmedia.com) is my social media consulting company. Every social media plan that I write includes a Google+ section. It is that important. Learn to love it and Google will share the love.